


The Curse Of The Powerful

by TheBlueBookworm



Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling, Percy Jackson and the Olympians - Rick Riordan
Genre: Alternate Universe - Harry Potter Setting, Alternate Universe - Percy Jackson Fusion, Angst, Canon-Typical Violence, Gen, Hurt/Comfort, Magic, Not Really Graphic Violence, haven't tagged all the characters they're way too many, hp x pjo crossover, millie's the oc and she's suffering, my first a03 post
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-12-03
Updated: 2021-02-02
Packaged: 2021-03-10 05:01:53
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 28
Words: 80,244
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27859505
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/TheBlueBookworm/pseuds/TheBlueBookworm
Summary: The girl who runs away from her aunt and uncle is soon to discover what she is. She finds heartbreak, betrayal, and much more on her journey, but she is the girl that is always happy and never lets anything or anyone take her down. She also finds love and family, even if not blood-related. After she finds out what she is, she is always overshadowed by her twin brother, Harry Potter, but she finds out what really happened that night in Godric's Hollow on Halloween. Being the daughter of a Greek god/goddess and a witch/wizard she has to be alert constantly and take care of herself and her family. This is the story of Millie Potter. (Tags may change)I don't own any of the characters except for Millie. All credits go to J.K. Rowling and Rick Riordan respectively.
Relationships: Fred Weasley/Original Female Character(s)
Comments: 1
Kudos: 10





	1. I find some camp?

**Author's Note:**

> Harry Potter X Percy Jackson crossover. Harry has a twin sister who is the OC and the main character. This is my first work on AO3 so kudos and feedback would be appreciated. This fic is also on Quotev with the same title if you want to check it out!   
> -TheBluebookworm is out~~!

I was devastated to leave my brother at the Dursleys place and run off but I couldn’t bear staying there anymore. Ok, let me back up and explain what I’m talking about. 

I’m Millie Potter (but you can call me Mil) and my twin brother’s name is Harry Potter. We live with our aunt and uncle since our parents died in a car crash. They had a son about our age but they always treated him like the king of the house, for example, I and Harry had to live in the cupboard under the stairs while Duddly had two rooms to himself, one where he kept his toys and the other where he slept. Also when we started going to school, we both got Dudley's old school clothes as hand-me-downs. I could give many more examples but it would take 10 days if we went without a break. So overall we were treated horribly.

I had talked with my brother about running away and finding another place to live, anywhere but here but he said it would be almost impossible and that it would be better if we stayed there at least we got shelter and food even if not the best. 

I listened to him at first, but on the day when I turned 7, I had had too much. I was out in the garden, which Aunt Petunia had told me to water the plants, sitting on the bench and just staring into nowhere when Uncle Vernon came and started to hit me about something that had happened in school. Apparently someone hit a first grader and blamed it on me. Harry came out to defend me but he ended up getting grounded without food for the whole day. That night that was it, so I wrote a small letter telling Harry that I was leaving and left around midnight. 

Now, it’s been around 2 weeks since I left the Dursleys and was sleeping near the trash cans next to the Grocery store. 

“Goodnight mum, and dad,” I mumbled looking up at the sky that was slightly dotted with stars here and there. I liked to do that every night (well not the stars part as I slept in the cupboard up until now) as I missed them and always wondered what it would be like to have a family that actually loved you. “And Harry,” I added as I realized I wasn’t sleeping in the cupboard next to him anymore. I then drifted off into a dreamless sleep wondering where I would go the next morning. 

I was woken by a black dog (which I named spot) licking me all over my face. “Ok, ok spot, I’m awake now,” I yawned. I stretched and got up. Looking around, recollecting where I was, I bent down to pack my bag. I didn’t have much in it, just a blanket that was my mom’s, and My family picture of me, Harry, mom, and dad, a knife that I stole from the Dursleys kitchen to keep myself safe and some wrappers of food that I had finished. 

I took out all the trash in my bag and threw it into the trash cans. 

Wondering where to go next I wandered the streets, spot following behind me closely. I started to hum my favorite song, what a wonderful world. I don’t know why I like that song, I guess it’s because it reminds me how amazing the world could be. 

I reached about halfway through the song before I see about half a mile away a girl was fighting what looked like an extremely huge human. I ran up to her to help her while taking out my knife. I try to distract the huge human when I realize that it has only one eye. The other girl attacked it from behind and it disintegrated to dust. 

I studied the other girl while she did the same to me. I asked, “Are you used to this?” 

“Yep, I kill at least one per day,” she replied. “I’m Millie Potter but you can call me Mil” I held out my hand. She took it “Annabeth Chase but you can call me Annabeth, I don’t really have a nickname” 

I smiled “I’ll come up with one for you. How’s Anna Oh or Annie!” “Annie it is!” “Where are you headed to?” I enquired “Don’t really know, I just ran away from my family, and now I don’t know where to go.” She replied. “Same here! Wow, I guess we’re quite similar. How old are you?” I exclaimed. “7 years, you??” “Yep, we’re so similar we could be sisters,” We giggled. (A/N: Ok, I know that London is halfway across the world from camp half-blood which is in New York, but just for the sake of the story, please ignore that fact.)

“So where to now?” She asked. “Ok, stop, stop, I get it” I replied. "Stop what?" she asked scrunching her eyebrows together. "You can't hear that?" I asked. "No, I don't hear anything" she replied after a few seconds of concentration. I cracked a smile as she looked at me, confusion written all over her face. "That was my stomach! Its growling girl! We better find some food soon, or you'll find your hand missing by tomorrow morning!" I say and burst out into fits of laughter. 

She seemed a little surprised at what I had said for a few seconds before she started laughing too, realizing it was a joke. "Ok, let's go find some food," she said. 

We may or may not have broken into a shop to get our bags stuffed with the resources we needed. 

So it’s been a few more weeks now, and I’ll just give you a summary of what happened. I and Annabeth ran into two other people like us who had run away from their homes, one was a 14-year-old boy named Luke, the other was a 12-year-old girl named Thalia. 

They both were very nice to us and we all stuck together as a group until and after we ran into this guy named Grover who explained that we were demi-gods which meant one of our parents was a Greek god. That made me wonder if Harry was a demi-god as well and which one of my parents were not my real parents. 

Later I learned that Grover was not human exactly. He was a satyr which means he had goat legs. Now how I learned this was the story. He didn’t tell us, but we were running from those huge men things with one eye again (whose name I later learned were cyclopses) when Grover’s shoes and cap flew off to reveal his hooves and horns that were barely seen. 

But that was not the time to worry about it, we were being chased by a cyclops! Grover told us that he was supposed to be taking us to a camp where demi-gods like us would be safe. We could see the camp half-blood sign which we supposedly had to cross to get into camp. 

Thalia told us to go on into camp while she distracted the Cyclops, Me and Annabeth cried “No! Thalia!” helplessly, but Grover and Luke dragged us into the camp from where we had to watch Thalia get thrown, her head hitting a rock and blood spewing out of the spot that got hit. I was crying and struggling against the hands wrapped around me, but they were strong and wouldn't let go of me. 

I was dazed and distressed and refused to believe what happened. We all had grown quite close in those few weeks together. 

I continued to watch as Thunder rumbled in the sky not noticing a lot of people had crowded around me. I watched as Thalia was slowly turned into a pine tree, unable to do anything.


	2. I heroically fainted

I couldn’t process what was going on anymore. And I fainted, very heroically. 

I woke up in a bed looking up at a white ceiling. I stared at it for about 30 seconds before a face hovered above me, it was Annabeth’s. She rushed in to hug me. “Annie, let the girl breath” A familiar voice chuckled softly. “Oh! I’m sorry” she said standing up again. 

I looked around to see I was in a small room with not much in it, just a trolley with medicines and other medical stuff, two chairs for people to sit (one occupied with Luke on the other side of my bed), and a few paintings here and there. 

“Hey Luke,” I said just realizing my voice was raspy. “Hey Mil! How are you feeling?” he replied

“I’m fine now, well, except for my throat,” I mutter the last part. “How long have I been out?” I question. Luke handed me a long thin glass filled with some liquid, I gave him a questioning look. He just shrugged and explained, “They said to give it to you after you woke up, something about it energizing you.” I sat up and took the glass with the help of Annabeth. 

“Well, you’ve been out for about 2 days” Annabeth answered. 

“Thalia” I suddenly remembered. “Is she fine?” Annabeth and Luke exchanged a look and turned back to me before starting “Umm… no, actually… how much do you remember?” Annabeth inquired. 

“Just till the part where she told us to run into the camp and…” I closed my eyes in concentration. I dived back into the memories of what happened that night. I remembered Luke and Grover pulling me and Annabeth into camp. I remember Thalia hitting her head on the rock… “She hit her head. What happened to her?” I ask panic rising inside of me.

“Thalia almost died, but Chiron says her father, Zeus, turned her into a Pine Tree. He said that was the only way she would be alive. Her Tree now creates a special barrier to protect the camp that doesn’t let any kind of monster, mortal, or basically anyone who is not a demigod in.” Luke mumbled slowly. 

I silently wondered who Chiron was, but figured that was a question for later. As I thought about Thalia, my eyes teared up. Annabeth moved in to hug me in an attempt to comfort me. 

Just then a Centaur walked in. He saw I was awake then noticed the still full glass in my hand “Drink it, you’ll feel better.” he stated. I was about to question who he was but I was interrupted by a greyish light glowing on all three of their faces. Everyone looked above my head. I turned my head up to see a skull floating above me. 

I was speechless, not knowing what to do. The Centaur’s face had pure shock. After a minute the Centaur seemed to come back to his senses and declared “All hail Millie Potter daughter of Hades,” he kneeled. Annabeth and Luke did the same. 

“Drink it.” the centaur simply stated again pointing at the glass. “Who are you?” I question putting the straw to my lips and draining the glass in seconds. My eyes popped out as an unexpected feeling of nostalgia hit me. I had tasted this somewhere, but I didn’t remember from where. 

The Centaur finally introduced himself “I’m Chiron the head of this camp.” I took some time to comprehend what he had said and then I finally spoke “Like the Chiron from the stories?” I question remembering what Grover had told us. “Yes,” He chuckled. “I have some important matters to discuss with… some people,” he muttered mostly for himself, I found this suspicious, but Annabeth and Luke didn’t seem to notice. “I’ll ask someone to come and show you around.” he continued. “Also, don't you both have archery right now?” he asked pointing to Luke and Annabeth. “Yes, sir, we’ll be headed there in some time,” Luke answered. 

As soon as he left the room I turned to Annabeth and Luke raising an eyebrow. “Care to explain what's happening?” “Well, this is going to be confusing. Remember what Grover said about the Greek gods being real?” He asked. “Yeah…” I trailed off. “Well, that symbol above your head means you just got claimed. By Hades, the god of the underworld.” I just sat there staring at the white wall in front of me trying to soak in the new information. 

Being the daughter of Hades would make me the daughter of the underworld. 

“Mil, I’m sorry but we have to go. We have archery with our cabin right now.” Annabeth said. “I’ll be fine,” I reply. 

As they left, two identical boys wearing bright orange t-shirts that said camp-half blood entered. “Hello,” they both said together. “Travis, Connor Stolls,” they said pointing to each other respectively speaking in unison. “Millie Potter” I replied. “So, we heard your father was Hades, is that true?” One of them, Travis I think, asked. 

“Yeah… I think so at least… I’m sorry, this is just a lot to take in…” I responded. “Well… um… I guess we… uh… have to… uh… show you around…” The other one said, Connor, walking out of the room, me following them. 

They explained everything, but they were very awkward after they found out about my father. I just wanted to make friends, but it looked like people were avoiding me. I hope that Annabeth and Luke won’t leave me. 

I found out about how the Stolls twins would prank everyone they could. I tried making small talk with them, hoping maybe that we could bond over the fact that we prank. They opened up a little more after that, but they were still hesitant as if they were afraid I would harm them.


	3. back to the Dursleys it is

I sit on the beach watching the waves touch my feet and retreat in a calming way. Travis and Conner had explained everything and I was just enjoying the quiet and peace for a while. I sat there for, I don’t know how much time before Annabeth came and tapped me from behind. “Hey,” I mumble, not taking my eyes off the horizon. “Hey!” she practically shouts in my ear. “What happened?” I ask. “Well, Chiron wanted to see you, and so did I. Is it a crime for someone to want to meet their best friend?” she asked in a squeaky tone. I just chuckled and shook my head getting up to meet Chiron, Annabeth does the same. “No, I just thought, you know, me being the daughter of the underworld and stuff, you wouldn’t want anything to do with me,” I say looking down, the sand turning to grass as we walked towards the Big House, ashamed of myself. “Hey, you don’t get to choose your godly parent now, do you?” she replied nudging me. 

“Speaking of which I got claimed today!” she continued, now jumping up and down. I covered my mouth with my hands surprised “Who is it?” I ask excitedly, jumping up and down with her now. “Athena! My mom is Athena!” I hug her. 

After we calmed down a little “Where’s Luke, by the way, I want to talk to him. I didn’t get a chance to properly after we came to camp.” I question. “Oh, I don’t know where he is right now, this place is huge after all, but you’ll see him at dinner and you can talk to him then.” I nod. 

As we walked through the camp towards the Big House, I saw people staring at me, or catching glances of me before whispering to each other, looks like word travels fast in camp. Some even flinched and got as far away from us as possible. But Annabeth was oblivious to this. 

We reached the Big House, after what felt like hours because Annabeth was talking non-stop about how cool camp was. Don’t get me wrong, I love the girl, but sometimes she can be a pain in the you know what, plus now that the whole camp was scared of me, I just felt as out of place here, as I did with the Dursleys. I thought I finally found the place that I fit in, but I didn’t here either. 

After Annabeth left after a lot of promising that I would talk to her later that evening, I entered to see Chiron in his wheelchair. “Chiron, sir, you wanted to see me?” I ask. 

“Yes, as you probably already saw, there is no cabin for your father, I’m sorry for that, but, I have a place for you to stay,” he states. “It’s fine, but is this place outside of camp?” “No, it’s in the camp, in this building itself in fact. Oh, also you’ll have to sit at the table with us during meals,” he says with sad eyes. 

Now I lose it. “Is there really no place at this camp for me, just because of my father? Even he should be treated as respectfully as the other gods! If so, I’d rather go back to the Dursleys than stay here! I’d rather be with my twin brother who actually accepts me!” I scream. I take a few deep breaths to calm down before adding “That’s it. I can’t take this anymore. I’m leaving tomorrow.” I say in a deadly calm voice before turning around and walking out before he could reply. 

My feelings that were bottled up since morning now came overflowing like a volcano. Anger. Sadness. Longing to see and hug my brother again. These feelings hit me like a boulder. 

I didn’t know where to go, so I went searching for Luke, he was the only older person I trusted now. I just hoped that my father wouldn't affect my friendship with him. I really don’t want to lose one of my older brothers. I spot him near the cabins, talking to his friends. I walked over to them trying to look confident, but I failed miserably, I had tears in my eyes, I was tired, not having gotten any rest since morning and I probably looked like a lunatic who escaped a mental asylum. 

“Luke, can I talk to you?” I ask timidly. “Not right now, actually I’m kinda busy,” he replied. “It’s urgent Luke, I need to talk to you now.” I plead. He looks over at me irritated, and then his eyes softened as if he just realized how bad I look, but then moments later, his face hardened again. “I said not, now, Millie,” He said sternly, but I could see the fear in his eyes. 

He was scared of me and didn’t want to talk to me because of my father. My eyes become more teary, if possible, and I shout “I was planning on leaving tomorrow morning, but seeing as no one cares anymore, I think I’ll leave now.” I gathered a little crowd around us. “Luke, I thought of you like my other brother. I didn’t choose my father. I’m no different because of who he is. It seems to me that it bothers you, and everyone at this camp… that I am Hades’ daughter, I think I’ll leave now.” Tears were streaming down my face uncontrollably. 

I just turned and ran away from the crowd and to the Big House. I grabbed a paper and I wrote a letter to Annabeth, as she was the only one who stayed by my side. She was the only one I cared about anymore, from camp. I quickly wrote a thanks to her and signed it before I found my backpack and took some other supplies from the camp store. 

I stopped at Thalia’s tree to say bye, as I wouldn’t be coming back, not for a long time at least, and not at all if possible. “Hey, Thalia. I miss you already, you know that, I just wish you were with us right now. I’m sorry I have to go, but I don’t fit in here and no one is accepting me. Thank you for being the big sister that I needed. Bye Thals.” I say hugging her tree for the last time, my tears soaking its bark. 

I walked out of the camp, through the barriers, not knowing where to go, I walked till I reached out of the forest. I had no sense of direction. Eventually, I decided to get caught by the police, so they would take me to the Dursleys. 

When I showed up at the Dursleys' house, Aunt Petunia and Uncle Vernon were furious, they said I wouldn’t get any food for the next week. I was a little famished already since the past week. I saw Harry, behind Uncle Vernon and hugged him hard. 

“Where were you! I was worried sick about you, you know that! I wasn’t able to sleep for days!” he whispered so that Aunt Petunia and Uncle Vernon wouldn’t hear. We went back to our room/cupboard under the stairs. 

I told him about everything, and not surprisingly he didn’t believe me, well, until I showed him my powers. I took him outside to the garden and lifted some rocks with my mind and opened a small fissure in the ground. He was shocked, to say the least. The rock thing I had read about and attempted for the first time, while the fissure I had done once, just once before. But that’s a story for another time. 

I was so exhausted after using so much of my energy to do this, Harry practically had to carry me back into the house.

I researched about the different powers I had and practiced them, overworking myself each time. My life was back to normal, I mean as normal as it can be when you're a demigod.


	4. I'm a WHAT???

-4 years later-

As usual, I went to get the mail, but this time, I saw two letters extra, they were identical, one addressed to me and the other to Harry. I take the letters into the kitchen to give them to the respective people. I was just about to open mine when Dudley shouted something, I wasn’t paying attention, about the letter in Harry’s and my hand before grabbing it from us and giving it to his father. Uncle Vernon’s eyes open wide before he showed it to Aunt Petunia who had the same reaction. 

They wouldn’t tell us about anything and sent us back to our cupboard when we demanded answers.

As I walked out of the cupboard the next morning, Uncle Vernon came out of the kitchen. Harry asked, “What happened to my letter?” “Your aunt and I have been thinking...you’re getting a bit big for the cupboard...we think it might be nice if you moved into Dudley’s second bedroom,” Uncle Vernon said with a very painful smile forced onto his face. 

“What?” I asked surprised. “Not you, only the boy.” “How is that even fair?” I said anger building up inside me. “You ran away when you were seven, you have to be punished for that.” “But that was literally FOUR years ago! I had gone through weeks without meals, without leaving the cupboard. You know I can call the police on you for physical abuse?” I almost scream. “Don’t shout at me! What I said is final. Now boy, quickly take your things up to your room, I want you gone from there before dinner tonight.” He spat before leaving, not giving me a chance to reply. 

I was so mad I ran into the cupboard and onto my bed. I put the covers over me before I started to cry. I was so mad at everything, why can’t I be good for anything! Why was this happening to me, what did I do? Just then Harry entered so I quickly dried up my tears and pretended to look angry, I didn’t want Harry to worry about when he already had to worry about himself. I pretended to be taking in deep breaths to calm myself down. 

“Mil, I’m sorry,” he said timidly. “No, it’s not your fault, Harry,” I say taking my covers off of me. “It’s just...” I stop myself before I start ranting. “Hey, Mil, it’s fine you know you can tell me anything right?” he said softly. “Yeah, thanks Harry, but I’m fine now.” I learned not to trust anyone with everything, plus I would be a burden and I didn’t want to be especially for my brother. I know I could trust my brother, but after what happened at camp, I just don’t trust anyone anymore. That innocent girl was gone, and will forever stay hidden. If I don’t get close to anyone, even if they leave me, I won’t get hurt, it was simple logic really. 

I helped my brother move his things up to his new bedroom. I was going to miss him even though he was just going to sleep in another room. We barely got to see each other in the mornings because of the work we had to do, the only time we got to properly talk was before sleeping, but now that was gone too. 

As the days passed, the letters kept coming and the number kept increasing each day, the address on the letters to Harry changed too, but mine stayed the same. I knew this from glancing at the letters that had come. 

On Sunday morning something came whizzing down the chimney. Wait, it’s summer, Santa can’t be sending us presents now I thought. A letter hit Uncle Vernon on the back of the head. I had to put my fist in my mouth to stifle my laughter so I can go somewhere besides the cupboard for the next week. 

The next moment, about 40 letters came in the same way, and I saw Harry grab a letter from the corner of my eye before trying to run out of the room. I do the same but Uncle Vernon grabs us and rips the letters out of our hands before throwing us down the hall. He then closes and locks the door to the kitchen. “That does it. I want you all back here in five minutes, ready to leave. We’re going away. Just pack some clothes. No argument!” Uncle Vernon yelled. 

I ran to my cupboard while Harry ran to his room. I quickly grabbed my little backpack and stuffed what little clothes I had, my blanket, and the picture. I took a last look around to see if Harry or I’d left something but everything was already in my bag. 

After everyone was ready, we drove, just drove. We didn’t stop to eat or drink anything all day long. I and Harry were used to not eating anything for days so we were doing fine, but Dudley was howling. Uncle Vernon finally stopped outside a gloomy-looking hotel on the outskirts of the city. I, Dudley, and Harry had to share one room, with two single beds so I had to sleep on the floor with a blanket. Harry offered to sleep on the floor, but I told him I was fine, after all, I had slept on the roads and many other places worse than hotel floors, he finally caved in knowing I wouldn’t give in or let him sleep on the floor. 

Even though I was younger than Harry, I always felt like an older sister, as if I had to look after him, I don’t know why. Also, after that incident when I was seven I knew I had to keep him safe from monsters as well. I tried to get some sleep but didn’t sleep a wink out of fear that a monster would burst through the doors and start attacking us at any moment. I of course had knives that shrank into a pendant whenever I willed it to but was still nervous. 

I told everyone the pendant was from my mom, but it was from my dad, my real dad. I don’t know how I knew, but I just did. It creeped people out so I hid it in my t-shirt, but I could take it and use it whenever I needed to. 

I was awake all night, Dudley’s snores were one more thing that kept me awake. I knew Harry didn’t sleep that night either, but none of us talked as to not wake Dudley who could later complain to his parents about us not letting him sleep and us being in more trouble than we already are in. 

The next morning we ate stale cornflakes and tinned tomatoes on toast for breakfast. The hotel owner came up to us just as we finished eating. “‘Scuse me, but is one of you Mr. H Potter and Ms. M Potter? I got about two hundred of these on my desk this morning.” She held up a letter for us to see. It was the same letter that we traveled so far to get rid of. 

I and Harry tried to grab it but Uncle Vernon slapped our hands away before taking the letter and standing up and saying “I’ll take them” He followed her from the dining room. 

Since the letters were coming to the hotel as well, we set out for a drive again. Uncle Vernon stopped in the middle of the forest, got out, shook his head, and got back in the car. The same thing happened a few more times. We reached a coast where Uncle Vernon parked and got off, but this time he locked us in and disappeared somewhere. 

I don’t know how I sat so quietly and silently still for those past two whole days that we drove seeing as I had ADHD as a regular demigod would have, but I managed. 

When he came back, he was smiling maniacally. He was also carrying some long and thin package but didn’t tell us what it was. “Found the perfect place! Come on! Everyone out!” he said. There was a large rock way out to sea. Perched on top of the rock was the most miserable shack you could imagine. We borrowed a boat and sailed all the way there. 

It felt like hours in that cold before we reached the rock. It reeked inside the shack. Uncle Vernon said he bought refreshments which were a packet of chips each and four bananas. I took the packet of chips, but the banana I didn’t get. Harry tried to give me half, but I refused, pretending not to be hungry, he opened his mouth to protest but shut it remembering how stubborn I was. 

As night fell the strong storm only grew stronger. I and Harry were sleeping on the floor today. There were five minutes to go until it was mine and Harry’s birthday, I heard something outside but ignored it, thinking it was just the storm, but I was on high alert after that. Four minutes...three..two...one minute… five - four - three - two - one - 

BOOM.

The whole shack shivered and we sat bolt upright, me in front of Harry, being the protective sister that I am. Someone was outside, knocking to come in. 

BOOM. 

This time Dudley sits up. The next time they tried to knock, the door swung clean off its hinges and crash-landed flat on the floor. By now Uncle Vernon had come out holding a rifle, Aunt Petunia cowering behind him. 

At the door frame, a giant was standing. I immediately took out my pendant that formed into my black knives, I didn’t know what kind they were yet or what they were made of, but they helped me when I was on the run and lost the knife from the Dursleys kitchen. But that’s for later, right now I had to protect Harry, even if that meant me getting hurt, after all, I had been the one to tell Harry about monsters and the whole thing, which meant he also had a scent, like demigods had, wherever he went now. I also had my daggers which I could make appear into my hands whenever I needed or wanted them. 

I quickly hide Harry behind one of the walls as the giant starts to squeeze himself in. No one questioned my knife as they couldn’t see through the mist which was probably showing them that I had picked up two sticks from the floor to defend myself. 

But the giant looked more human than the others I had seen. He should have attacked us by now. He just made himself comfortable on the couch. “Couldn’t make us a cup ‘o tea, could yeh? It’s not been an easy journey..” he said.

He looked at Dudley and said, “Budge up, yeh great lump”. Dudley, who was sitting on the couch immediately jumped up and ran to hide behind his parents. “An’ there’s Millie!” he said turning to me. 

“An’ Harry!” he said spotting him from his hiding spot. He came out before the giant man started “Las’ time I saw you, you was only babies, Yeh look a lot like yer dad” he said pointing to Harry “An’ yeh have Lily’s eyes.” “Yeh look exactly like Lily except for the hair and eyes,” he said turning to me.

Apparently, Uncle Vernon had enough, he made a funny rasping noise before starting “I demand that you leave at once, sir! You are breaking and entering.” “Ah, shut up, Dursley, yeh great prune,” the giant man said as he reached over the back of the sofa, jerked the gun out of Uncle Vernon’s hands, bent it into a knot as easily as if it had been made of butter, and threw it into a corner of the room. 

“Anyway - Harry, Millie, a very happy birthday to yeh. Got sommat fer yeh here - mighta sat on it at some point, but it’ll taste all right.” From an inside pocket of his back overcoat, he pulled out a slightly squashed box. We opened the box to see a large sticky chocolate cake with Happy Birthday Harry & Millie written on it with green icing. 

I wanted to say thank you but it came out as “Who are you?” At first, he chuckled, but then he seemed to notice the ‘sticks’ in my hand. “Ok, first of all, I’m not here to harm yeh, so yeh can put the sticks down,” he said. “I’m Rubeus Hagrid, Keeper of Keys and Grounds at Hogwarts.” I just nod motioning for him to continue. 

He apparently didn’t notice and went to the fireplace and blocked our view while he did something, and a few seconds later there was a fire and tea boiling on it. He put some sausages to cook and after they were done gave some to me and Harry, I was so hungry, I wolfed it down. 

I still didn’t understand who he was so I said “I’m sorry, but I still don’t really know who you are” “Call me Hagrid, everyone does. An’ like I told yeh, I’m Keeper of Keys at Hogwarts - yeh’ll know all about Hogwarts, o’ course” “Er - no” I say. 

Hagrid looked shocked. “Sorry,” I say scared of him. This Giant was making a decent conversation unlike the others I’d met before. I was just starting to question if I could trust this guy or not when...“SORRY?” he barked, turning to stare at the Dursleys, who shrank back into the shadows. I raised my swords a little higher. “It’s them as should be sorry! I knew yeh weren’t gettin’ yeh letters but I never thought yeh wouldn’t even know abou’ Hogwarts, fer cryin’ out loud! Did yeh never wonder where yer parents learnt it all?” 

“All what?” Harry pipped up from behind me. He was feeling a little more secure behind me as I was still holding up the knives and I knew that he could see through the mist. “ALL WHAT?” Hagrid thundered. “Now wait jus’ a second!” He had leapt to his feet. In anger, he seems to fill the whole hut. I held my knives higher just in case. The Dursleys were cowering against the wall.

“Do you mean ter tell me that this boy, and this girl! Know nothing abou’ - about ANYTHING?” He growled at the Dursleys. “About our world, I mean. Your world. My world. Yer parent’s world.” he said now facing us.

I just had a confused expression on my face, while Harry asked “What world?” Hagrid looked as if he was about to explode. “DURSLEY” he boomed. Uncle Vernon had turned very pale. Hagrid turned and looked at us wildly. “But yeh must know about yer mum and dad. I mean, they’re famous. You’re famous.” he said in desperation for us to recognize something. We just looked at him confused. “Yeh don’ know… yeh, don’ know… Yeh don’t know what yeh are?” He said. 

Uncle Vernon suddenly found his voice again. “Stop!” He commanded. “Stop right there, sir! I forbid you to tell the girl and boy anything!” Hagrid trembled with rage. “You never told them? Never told them what was in the letter Dumbledore left fer them? I was there! I saw Dumbledore leave it, Dursley! An’ you’ve kept it from them all these years?” 

Harry suddenly got excited. “Kept what from us?” “STOP! I FORBID YOU!” yelled Uncle Vernon. Hagrid was done with them now though “Ah, go boil yer heads. Harry - yer a wizard and Millie - yer a witch.” 

There was silence inside the hut. “I’m a what?” We both ask at the same time. Twin telepathy I guess. I don’t even know why this surprises me anymore “A wizard and witch, o’ course. I reckon it’s abou’ time yeh read yer letters” Hagrid replied handing us our letters. 

There were two papers in it, I opened the first one.

It read:

HOGWARTS SCHOOL OF 

WITCHCRAFT AND WIZARDRY

Headmaster: Albus Dumbledore

(Order of Merlin, First Class, Grand Soc., Chf. Warlock, 

Supreme Mugwump, International Confed. Of Wizards)

Dear Ms. Potter,  
We are pleased to inform you that you have a place at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. Please find enclosed a list of all necessary books and equipment. Term begins on 1 September. We await your owl by no later than 31 July.

Yours sincerely,

Minerva McGonagall

Deputy Headmistress

The second one read:

HOGWARTS SCHOOL OF 

WITCHCRAFT AND WIZARDRY

UNIFORM 

First-year students will require:

Three sets of plain work robes (black)

One plain pointed hat (black) for day wear

One pair of protective gloves (dragon hide or similar)

One winter cloak (black, silver fastenings)

Please note that all pupils’ clothes should carry name tags

SET BOOKS

ALL STUDENTS SHOULD HAVE A COPY OF EACH OF THE FOLLOWING:

The Standard Book of Spells (Grade 1) By Miranda Goshawk

A History of Magic by Bathilda Bagshot

Magical Theory by Adalbert Waffling

A Beginner’s Guide to Transfiguration by Emeric Switch

One Thousand Magical Herbs and Fungi by Phyllida Spore

Magical Drafts and Potions by Arsenius Jigger

Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them by Newt Scamander

The Dark Forces: A Guide to Self-Protection by Quentin Trimble

OTHER EQUIPMENT

1 wand

1 cauldron (pewter, standard size 2)

1 set glass or crystal phials

1 telescope 

1 set brass scales

Students may also bring an owl OR a cat OR a toad

PARENTS ARE REMINDED THAT FIRST-YEARS ARE NOT ALLOWED THEIR OWN BROOMSTICKS

A million questions erupted in my brain. 

“What does it mean they await my owl?” I ask re-reading the first letter. “Gallopin’ Gorgons, that reminds me,” said Hagrid taking out a roll of parchment and a long quill, then he scribbled a note: 

Dear Mr Dumbledore,

Given Harry and Millie their letters. 

Taking them to buy their things tomorrow.

Weather’s horrible. Hope you’re well.

Hagrid

He then grabbed an owl - a real, living owl from his coat pocket, and gave the letter to it, which clamped it in its beak, flew through one of the windows. 

“They're not going,” Uncle Vernon said. Hagrid simply grunted. “I’d like ter see a great Muggle like you stop him,” he said. “A what?” Harry asked from beside me. “A muggle,” said Hagrid. “It’s what we call non-magic folk like them.” “We swore when we took them in we’d put a stop to that rubbish, swore we’d stamp it out of them!” Uncle Vernon said. “You knew?” I spat at them. “Knew!” shrieked Aunt Petunia suddenly. “Knew! Of course, we knew! How could you not be, my dratted sister being what she was? Oh, she got a letter just like that and disappeared off to that - that school - and came home every holiday with her pockets full of frog-spawn, turning teacups into rats. I was the only one who saw her for what she was - a freak! But for my mother and father, oh no, it was Lily this and Lily that, they were proud of having a witch in the family!” 

She stopped to draw a deep breath and then went ranting on. It seemed she had been wanting to say all this for years. 

“Then she met that Potter at school and they left and got married and had you both, and of course I knew you’d both be just the same, just as strange, just as - as - abnormal - and then, if you please, she went and got herself blown up and we got landed with you!” 

“Blown up? You told us they died in a car crash!” Harry said I could tell his anger was building up inside of him. “CAR CRASH!” roared Hagrid, jumping up so angrily that the Dursleys scuttled back into their corner. “How could a car crash kill Lily an’ James Potter? It’s an outrage! A scandal! Harry Potter, an’ Millie Potter not knowin’ their own story when every kid in our world know their names!”

“But why? What happened?” Harry asked, curious. The anger from Hagrid's face faded, it was replaced by anxiousness. 

“I never expected this,” he said, in a low worried voice. “I had no idea when Dumbledore told me there might be trouble gettin’ hold of yeh, how much yeh didn’t know. Ah, Harry, Millie, I don’ know if I’m the right person ter tell yeh - but someone’s gotta - yeh can’t go off to Hogwarts not knowin’” He threw the Dursleys a dirty look. 

He sat down, staring at the fire for a few seconds before saying “I can’t tell yeh everything, but it’s best yeh know as much as I can tell yeh. It begins, I suppose, with - a person called - but it’s incredible yeh don’t know his name, everyone in our world knows - ”

“Who?” I ask, getting impatient.

“Well - I don’ like sayin’ the name if I can help it. No one does.” 

“Why not?” I ask, trying not to roll my eyes. I mean come on! It’s just a name for god's sake! It's not like as soon as you say it, a lightning bolt will zap the life out of you. Although in my other world, it probably would happen. 

“People are still scared. This is difficult. See, there was this wizard who went… bad. As bad as you could go… His name was… Voldemort. Don’ make me say it again. Anyway, this - this wizard, about twenty years ago now, started lookin’ fer followers. Got ‘em, too - some were afraid, some just wanted a bit ‘o his power, ‘cause he was gettin’ himself power, all right. Dark days. Didn’t know who ter trust, didn’t dare get friendly with strange wizards or witches… Terrible things happened. He was takin’ over. ‘Course. Some stood up to him - an’ he killed ‘em. Horribly. One o’ the only safe places left was Hogwarts. Reckon Dumbledore’s the only one You-Know-Who was afraid of. Didn’t dare try takin’ the school, not jus’ then, anyway.”

I tried really hard to focus on what he was saying, but because of my ADHD, I wasn’t listening to the conversation anymore, although I caught a few parts.

He said our parents were amazing, which just made me feel horrible, because I have not done anything to live up to their expectations, and I don’t think I will ever be able to. He also says that on Halloween You-Know-Who (which I think is a really silly name by the way, including Voldemort, I mean, what the heck kind of a name is that?) turned up to our house ten years ago and killed our parents, and us, but something happened and the spell backfired. Something happened that night, and it was a complete mystery. He also told us how we got our scars (the shape of an outline of a skull engraved on the front of my wrist), by being touched by a powerful, evil curse. 

When Hagrid talked about that night, my scar suddenly started hurting. I remembered pieces of what happened. I saw Voldemort holding out a wand at my mother, a green blinding flash shooting out of it, and then my mother's body falling limp on the floor. Then he turned towards me and Harry in the crib. That was all. 

I didn’t understand what to make of what I just saw, so I pushed it to the back of my head to think about later. Right now I was a little preoccupied with something else. 

I was snapped back into reality when Uncle Vernon started speaking. 

Hagrid looked at us sadly. “Load of old Tosh” Uncle Vernon said. I had forgotten the Dursleys were still there. “Now, you listen here, both of you!” He snarled “I accept there’s something strange about you, probably nothing a good beating wouldn’t have cured - and as for all of this about you parents, well, they were weirdos, no denying it, and the world's better off without them in my opinion - asked for all they got, getting mixed up with these wizarding types - just what I expected, always knew they’d come to a sticky end -”

But at that moment, Hagrid leapt up from the sofa and drew a battered pink umbrella from inside his coat. Pointing this at Uncle Vernon like a sword, he said “I’m warning you Dursley - I’m warning you - one more word..”

Harry asked a few more questions while I completely zoned out. They said something about You-Know-Who disappearing, or something happening to him after that night. 

Harry then thinks that he got the wrong people, but I believed Hagrid. I mean after learning you're a daughter of a Greek God, I think I could believe anything. That reminds me, after about a year after I got back to the Dursleys from that….that camp, I started to discover some of my powers, and by the looks of it, I have many more cool powers that I could learn, but it was not safe. I could have been able to back at camp, but I don’t want anything to do with that place… not after what happened.

If possible, I could maybe find a place at this Hogwarts school or whatever to practice without anyone finding out anything. But that stuff is for later, right now I have to deal with the Giant in the room. 

When I turned back into the conversation, Uncle Vernon was saying “Haven’t I told you they’re not going? They’re going to Stonewall High and they’ll be grateful for it. I’ve read those letters and they need all sorts of rubbish - spell books and wands and - ” He got cut off by Hagrid saying “If he wants ter go, a great Muggle like you won’t stop him. Stop Lily an’ James Potter’s kids goin’ ter Hogwarts! Yer Mad. Their names have been down ever since they were born. They’re off ter the finest school of witchcraft and wizardry in the world. An’ they’ll be under the greatest Headmaster Hogwarts ever had, Albus Dumbledore.” He finished proudly. 

Just then Uncle Vernon shouted, “I AM NOT PAYING FOR SOME CRACKPOT OLD FOOL TO TEACH THEM MAGIC TRICKS!” 

Apparently he had gone too far this time. Hagrid seized his umbrella and whirled it over his head. “NEVER - ” he thundered. “ - INSULT - ALBUS - DUMBLEDORE - IN - FRONT - OF - ME!”

He brought the umbrella swishing down through the air to point at Dudley - there was a flash of violet light, a sound like a firecracker, a sharp squeal, and next second, Dudley was dancing on the spot with his hands clasped over his fat bottom, howling in pain. When he turned his back on us, I saw a curly pig’s tail poking through a hole in his trousers. 

Uncle Vernon roared, Pulling Aunt Petunia and Dudley into the other room, he cast one last terrified look at Hagrid and slammed the door behind him.

“Shouldn’ta lost me temper” Hagrid said ruefully, “but it didn’t work anyway. Meant ter turn him into a pig, but I suppose he was so much like a pig anyway there wasn’t much left ter do.” I snickered. He looked at me amusedly. 

“I’d be grateful if yeh didn’t mention that ter anyone at Hogwarts,” he said. “I’m - er - not supposed ter do magic, strictly speakin’. I was allowed ter do a bit ter follow yeh an’ get yer letters to yeh an’ stuff - one o’ the reasons I was so keen ter take on the job - ” Harry cut him off. “Why aren’t you supposed to do magic?” he asked. 

I shot him a look that clearly said ‘You can’t be so straightforward! It’s rude.’. But, now that I think about it, I am quite straightforward myself, so I shouldn’t say anything. Hagrid didn’t seem to think of it as anything rude because he answered. “Oh, well - I was at Hogwarts meself but I - er - got expelled, ter tell yeh the truth. In me third year. They snapped me wand in half an’ everything. But Dumbledore let me stay on as gamekeeper. Great man, Dumbledore.” 

“Why were you expelled?” Harry blurted. I rolled my eyes at him shooting him a look that said ‘Way to be subtle’. Apparently, that's all that Hagrid would talk about. “It’s gettin’ late and we’ve got lots ter do tomorrow. Gotta get up ter town, get all yer books an’ that.” He said loudly. 

He took off his black coat and threw it to me and Harry. “You can sleep under that.” He said.


	5. UGH! Shopping!

I didn’t dare sleep that night, just in case. I still wasn’t sure if I could trust Hagrid completely, but I guess it was better than staying with the Dursleys. I mean, I do know how to take care of myself if I needed to. I could keep Harry safe as well. 

I was tired of not getting any sleep for the past nights, but I was determined to stay up just in case something happens.

I was cut off from my thoughts by Harry muttering something. I didn’t understand what he said, so I just thought he talked in his sleep. But, no, that is weird, I’ve slept in the same room (Well, cupboard) with him since we were babies, and he doesn’t talk in his sleep. I just ignored it. 

I looked out a window to see an owl pecking on it. I opened it to let the owl in. Harry sat up as the owl glided in through the window and landed on the floor, scaring the daylights out of Harry, at least that's what his expression told me. I let out a small laugh. 

The owl dropped a newspaper in front of me and started pecking my shoe. I jerked my foot back. I was confused as to what to do so I decided to ask Hagrid. “Hagrid! Um...There’s an owl...” I say unsure of how to explain it. “Pay him,” Hagrid said sleepily. “What?” I ask confused. “He wants payin’ fer deliverin’ the paper. Look in the pockets.” He said lazily pointing at the coat.

As I looked at his coat and just realized that it was made of nothing but pockets. I pulled out many weird things, including bunches of keys, slug pellets, balls of string, mint humbugs, and tea-bags, until I finally pulled out some very strange looking coins.

They weirdly reminded me of Drachmas, the demigod currency, you could say. This made me wonder just how many different types of currencies there could be in the whole world. “Give him five knuts,” Hagrid said, snapping me out of my thoughts. “Umm...Ok...” I say before realizing I have no idea what he was talking about. “Wait...Knuts?” I ask clueless. “The little bronze ones,” he said.

I counted five of the bronze ones and put it in the pouch that the owl was holding out with its leg. It then flew out of the open window, probably to deliver another newspaper, I thought.

Hagrid yawned loudly and sat up. “Best be off, Harry, Millie, lots ter today, gotta get up ter London an’ buy all yer stuff fer school.”

I was still looking and turning the coins over, observing them. Something just hit me, I didn’t have any money to pay for anything. “Um...Hagrid?” “Mhm?” “We haven’t got any money - and Uncle Vernon said he wouldn’t pay for us to go and learn magic.” 

“Oh, Don’t worry about that. D’yeh think yer parents didn’t leave yeh anything?” “But if their house was destroyed -” Harry started before Hagrid cut him off. It must have been something they talked about last night when I’d zoned out. “They didn’t keep gold in their house, boy! Nah, first stop fer us is Gringotts. Wizards’ bank. Have a sausage, they’re not bad cold - an’ I wouldn’ say no teh a bit o’ yer birthday cake, neither.” “Oh, here,” I say picking up the box that contained the birthday cake and handing it to Hagrid. 

At the same time, Harry said “Wizards have banks?” After that, I zoned out for a bit while eating my sausage and a piece of cake. After finishing up, we all headed out. The sky was quite clear now that the storm had stopped. 

The boat Uncle Vernon had hired was still there. “How did you get here?” I asked. “Flew,” Hagrid said simply. “Flew?” I and Harry say together. 

“Yeah - but we’ll go back in this. Not s’upposed ter use magic now I’ve got yeh.” Hagrid said pointing to the boat. We stepped into the boat and sat down. I tried to imagine Hagrid flying. It was like trying to imagine a giant mosquito flying over a river of lava. So, pretty much impossible. Except it was possible. It’s happened before. Huh… I wonder what happened to the mosquito then. 

ADHD, always making my mind wander. Anyways back to reality. 

I started paying attention to the conversation again when Harry asked “There’s a ministry of Magic?” 

“‘Course,” Hagrid answered. “They wanted Dumbledore fer Minister, o’ course, but he’d never leave Hogwarts, so old Cornelius Fudge got the job. Bungler if ever there was one. So he pelts Dumbledore with owls every morning, askin’ fer advice.” 

I tuned out again as I watched the surroundings. Just then I had noticed that the oars were moving by themselves. That is so cool! I thought. 

Just then the boat bumped gently into the harbor wall. We climbed up to the streets. A lot of people were staring at Hagrid as we strolled down the roads. I mean I couldn’t blame them. Hagrid was twice as tall as normal humans and he kept pointing to perfectly ordinary things and saying “See that? Things Muggles dream up, eh?”

We then talked about Hagrid wanting a dragon, which I was shocked by at first, but then realized, if magic could exist, why couldn’t keeping extremely dangerous animals as pets. 

We reached the station from which we took a train leaving in five minutes to London. Hagrid had some ‘muggle’ money on him but was left clueless as of how to use it, so yours truly helped them out. 

We sat down on the train when Hagrid said “Still got yer letters, Harry, Millie?” I nodded and held it up for him to see. “There’s a list of everything yer gonna need,” He continued nodding at the letters in our hands. 

Of course, I’d already read the letter, while Harry was just oblivious to the second letter. I skimmed through the letter once again. I glanced at Harry’s letter, but I couldn’t read it properly. I saw him look over at my letter to see if there was something different. He frowned before asking “What language is that in?”

I had just realized that I can’t read very easily, I mean, not English at least. But whatever language this letter was written in, I could read without any trouble at all. I concentrated on the writing and it hit me. The letter was written in ancient greek! I could read ancient greek effortlessly because of my father. 

That would mean...whoever wrote the letter, knew about who I really was. It must have been that Dumbledore dude. 

While I was swimming in my thoughts, Harry tapped my arm, snapping me out of my daze to tell me we had reached our destination. 

After we got off the train, I didn’t know where to go, but it looked like Hagrid knew his way, so I tailed him. Hagrid was very fascinated about how muggles managed without magic. 

We passed many ordinary-looking shops that didn’t look like they would sell wands or that sort of thing. Harry had never really been out in the real world yet so he was a little amazed and didn’t know if he should trust Hagrid, but it looked like me being there made him feel a tad bit safer. 

My senses skipped as soon as I heard a hiss from somewhere near me. A few more hisses confirmed my suspicions of a monster. Hagrid had heard the hissing too, I could tell because he kept glancing around to see if there was anything about to attack us. 

I shared one look with Hagrid and we formed a plan. I figured out he knew my little secret since he was a little tenser than he should have been when he saw those so-called ‘sticks’ in my hand the night before.

Even though the streets were packed with people, we found a vacant alleyway. I went and blended myself into the shadows of the building waiting for the monster to follow me. I watched as a dracaenae came slithering in the alleyway. 

Just then Hagrid started to talk to it, pretending to ask directions. When it was completely distracted, I took out my swords and sliced through her middle and she burst into dust. Harry was quivering behind Hagrid. He knew all about these monsters but he had never actually seen me kill one. 

I dusted the monster dust off my clothes before turning my swords back into my pendant. I then turned to Harry and Hagrid, acting like nothing happened and asked “Where to now?” “We have to go to the Leaky Cauldron,” Hagrid replied, trying to look unfazed by what had just happened, but was failing. I didn’t even think to comment on the name of that place, worrying about Harry.

Hagrid turned and walked out of the alley and towards their destination. I stayed a little behind with Harry to ask him if he was ok. 

“Hey,” I say softly. “Hey” he replied, but he was so quiet I barely heard him. “You fine?” I asked glancing at him before looking back ahead. I waited for a few seconds before looking at him since he didn’t reply. He simply nodded. 

“Look, it’s fine if you're scared, it’s normal to be, but I will always be there for you. I will never let anything happen to you. I just want to let you know, if you have to talk about something, I’ll always be there for you, no matter what.” I say. I don’t know where all of this was coming from. I was never poetic. Might be Apollo messing with my brain.

But I push the thought aside as Harry opens his mouth to say something. “I’m fine, it’s just… I feel bad that you have to kill them, and take a life.” I almost laugh at this, just wondering wistfully what would happen if the monsters didn’t come back, ever. Note the almost. Sometimes I was straightforward, but I wasn’t mean. 

I managed to swallow that laugh that was making its way up my throat, but I couldn’t stop the smile from forming on my face. Harry looked at me curiously. 

“Harry, these monsters, they don’t die, I mean they do, but...” I was having a little trouble explaining this to him as it was the first time. “The monsters, they don’t have souls like us humans, when we kill them, they die, but they eventually reform and come back again. For some of them, it might take years, meanwhile for others, maybe just a few days” I explain hoping he would understand what I was saying.

I know what you're wondering. Didn’t you tell him all of this stuff already? Well, the answer is yes, but no. Yes because I told him about monsters and everything else, and no because I didn’t give him all of the details as they would scare him bad. Yes, I care about my brother a lot. So much so that sometimes he calls me mom. I am offended by this. I mean, yeah, I take care of him, but that doesn’t give him the right to call me mom! That just makes me feel old. 

But back to reality now, where hopefully I can stay a little longer than 5 minutes. I scold myself for this. 

I give Harry a side hug, reassuring him that I was there for him. He gave me a small smile, which I returned but mine fully plastered all over my face. 

“This is it,” said Hagrid, finally coming to a halt. “The Leaky Cauldron?” Harry asks though I think he knew the answer. “It’s a famous place” Hagrid replied, nodding. 

It was a tiny, grubby-looking pub. No one seemed to notice the pub as they were rushing by, to go get all of their work done. I was, of course, again, used for this kind of behavior from people, thinking it was just the mist, I followed Hagrid inside, dragging Harry by the arm. 

The inside was dark and shabby. A few old women were sitting in the corner, one of them smoking a long pipe. There was a little man, talking to the old barman. 

The chatter came to a cease as we entered. Everyone looked knowingly at Hagrid, like they knew him, they waved and smiled at him as we made our way through the bar. 

“The usual, Hagrid?” the barman asked. “Can’t, Tom, I’m on Hogwarts business” Hagrid replied. “Good lord” the barman gasped, looking over at me and Harry as if just realizing we were there. “Is this really - can this be - ?” 

The Leaky Cauldron had gone completely silent and still. Not a single thing was moving, even the air seemed to understand the atmosphere and remained still. 

“Bless my soul,” whispered the barman. “Harry and Millie Potter...what an honor,”

He hurried out from behind the bar, rushed towards Harry first, and seized his hand, tears in his eyes. “Welcome back, Mr. Potter, welcome back.” He then dropped Harry’s hand and seized mine “Ms. Potter, welcome back, welcome back,” 

I was usually good with attention, but I was just plain confused, so I kept my mouth shut and waited for things to work themselves out before deciding to do anything. 

I looked around and saw that everyone was either watching me or Harry. Hagrid was beaming while this whole exchange happened. 

All of a sudden, there was a great scraping of chairs, and next moment, everyone was shaking Harry’s hand, then mine. 

“Dorris Crockford, Mr., Ms. Potter can’t believe I’m meeting you at last.”

“Always wanted to shake your hands - I’m all of a flutter.”

“Delighted, Mr., Ms. Potter, just can’t tell you, Diggle’s the name, Dedalus Diggle.”

“I’ve seen you before!” Harry said out of nowhere, as Dedalus Diggle’s top hat fell off in his excitement. “You bowed to me once in a shop.” he continued. 

“He remembers!” cried Dedalus Diggle, looking around at everyone. “Did you hear that? He remembers me!”

I kept shaking hands with everyone, some people kept coming again and again. (Yes, I’m looking at you, Doris Crockford)

A pale young man made his way forward, very nervously. One of his eyes was twitching. 

“Professor Quirrell,” Hagrid said. “Harry, Millie, Professor Quirrell will be one of your teachers at Hogwarts,”

“P-P-Potters” stammered Professor Quirrell, grasping Harry’s hand. “c-can’t t-tell you how p-pleased I am to meet you.” He said now grasping mine. 

“What sort of magic do you teach, Professor Quirrell?” Harry asked. 

“D-Defense Against the D-D-Dark Arts,” he muttered a reply, as though he’d rather not think about it. “N-not that you n-need it, eh P-P-Potters?” He laughed nervously. 

I was getting this weird vibe off him. It was not like what I would feel if there was a monster near me, but like there was something very powerful around me, but I couldn’t put my finger on it. 

“You’ll be g-getting all your equipment, I suppose? I’ve g-got to p-pick up a new b-book on vampires, m-myself.” Professor Quirrell looked terrified at the very thought. 

After that encounter, it took about another ten minutes to get away from them all. At last, we escaped from the crowd. 

I looked at Hagrid, simply confused.”Told yeh, didn’t I? Told yeh you were famous.”

“What’s up with him?”, “Is he always this nervous?” I and Harry asked at the same time. I think you can figure out who said what. “Oh, yeah. Poor bloke. Brilliant mind. He was fine while he was studyin’ outta books but then he took a year off ter get some first-hand experience… They say he met vampires in the Black Forest and there was a nasty bit o’ trouble with a hag - never been the same since. Scared of the students, scared of his own subject - now, where’s me umbrella?” Hagrid stopped abruptly. 

Ok, to tell the truth, I kinda, may or may not have zoned out there. Hagrid was now muttering things like “Three up… two across” Then he told me and Harry to stand back. He then proceeded to tap the wall three times with the tip of his umbrella. I was extremely confused, why in the Hades was he tapping a brick wall with an umbrella. 

I knew I would eventually go insane, but I didn’t expect it to happen so soon in my life. As I was looking around to see if I was gone completely bonkers, the brick Hagrid had touched quivered - it wriggled - in the middle, a small hole appeared - it grew wider and wider - a second later we were facing an archway large enough even for Hagrid, an archway on to a cobbled street which twisted and turned out of sight. 

“Welcome,” Hagrid said. “To Diagon Alley.” 

I was amazed. I don't even have any words to describe what I was looking at. I was speechless as I looked at the shops lined up the cobbled street. We stepped through the archway and I saw Harry glance behind, I followed his gaze only to see the archway shrinking back into a wall. 

I looked at Harry for confirmation that this all was real and his expression told me everything. I was looking at the different shops when I heard Hagrid say “Yeah, you’ll be needing all o’ that. But we gotta get yer money first.” 

I could see Harry whipping his head all around trying to look at everything possible, I did the same. This place was huge and exceedingly entertaining, even for a demigod with severe ADHD. We walked and walked looking at everything in sight before we stopped at a snowy-white building which towered over the other little shops. 

Standing beside its burnished bronze doors, wearing a uniform of scarlet and gold was - “Yeah, that’s a goblin” Hagrid said. My hand instinctively went up to my pendant, but before I could wield them Hagrid stopped me “Not those ones” I nodded and put my hand back down. 

As we walked into the building, the goblin bowed. Now we were facing a second pair of doors. There were words engraved in them, but they were in English, so I had trouble reading it. I nudge Harry in the ribs, gesturing for him to read it out to me, which he so kindly did. 

“ENTER, STRANGER, BUT TAKE HEED OF WHAT AWAITS THE SIN OF GREED, FOR THOSE WHO TAKE, BUT DO NOT EARN, MUST PAY MOST DEARLY IN THEIR TURN, SO IF YOU SEEK BENEATH OUR FLOORS A TREASURE THAT WAS NEVER YOURS, THIEF, YOU HAVE BEEN WARNED, BEWARE OF FINDING MORE THAN TREASURE THERE.” 

“Ohhhhh! That sounds spooky!” I say, looking over to Harry and Hagrid. “Like I said, yeh’d be mad ter try an’ rob it,” Hagrid said. “You did? When did you say that?” I ask. “Yeah, he did, today morning when we were eating, although, you would have known that if you were listening” Harry scolded me. “Sorry, but you know my ADHD, I can’t help it, I try to focus, I do, but it’s not possible,” I say sticking my tongue out at him being the mature girl that I am. (note the sarcasm) Harry just rolled his eyes at me and then followed Hagrid, who had just gone in. 

When the doors were opened by two other bowing goblins, I saw a hall filled with about a hundred more goblins sitting on high stools behind a long counter, on each side, scribbling on paper, weighing coins on brass scales, examining precious stones through an eyeglass. There were way too many doors to count leading in and out of the hall, and even more goblins were showing people through these doors. 

The three of us made our way to the counter. “Morning” Hagrid said to a free goblin. “We’ve come ter take some money outta Mr. Harry Potter and Ms. Mille Potter’s safe.” Hagrid continued. “You have the key sir?” The goblin asked, eyeing me and Harry carefully as if we were one of the precious stones. I got uncomfortable under the glare and looked anywhere but the goblin. 

“Got it here somewhere,” Hagrid said and started emptying his pockets on to the counter, scattering a handful of moldy dog-biscuits over the goblins book of numbers. The goblin wrinkled his nose and I did too. 

“Got it” Hagrid stated at last, after about three minutes of searching for the key, now holding up a tiny golden key. The goblin studied it closely. “That seems to be in order,” He said with finality. 

“An’ I’ve also got a letter here from Professor Dumbledore,” Hagrid said importantly, throwing out his chest. “It’s about the You-Know-What in vault You-Know-Which.” Ok, I’m sorry, but what is it with this world and the You-Knows? Whatever happened to I-don’t-knows? I thought. 

The goblin read the letter that Hagrid had handed him very carefully. “Very well.” the goblin said, handing the letter back to Hagrid. “I will have someone take you down to both vaults. Griphook!” The goblin called. I found out Griphook was yet another goblin. 

Hagrid was cramming all the dog-biscuits back into his pockets while Griphook made his way over to us. All three of us followed the goblin towards one of the doors that was leading out of the hall. I wondered how they memorized the map of this place. It must’ve taken hours. I definitely wouldn’t have the patience to do so. 

“What’s in that vault you were talking about Hagrid?” Harry asked. Wow, I can’t focus for my life. “Can’t tell yeh that” Hagrid replied mysteriously. “Very secret. Hogwarts business. Dumbledore’s trusted me. More’n my job’s worth ter tell yeh that.” 

I wonder what could be more important than a job. Well, now come to think of it, a lot, but still… Griphook held the door open for us to go through. I was expecting to see more marble, but instead appeared in a narrow stone passageway lit with flaming torches. It sloped steeply downwards and there were little railway tracks on the floor.

Griphook whistled and a small cart came hurtling up the tracks towards us. We all climbed in - Hagrid with some difficulty - and we were off. 

We hurtled through a maze of twisting passages. I tried to keep track of how many turns we were taking and where we were going but it was going way too fast for me. I wondered how Griphook was driving this thing so fast and how he remembered the way. I mean goblins must have amazing memories. Then, I saw that Griphook wasn’t steering the cart, so it must have been going on its own. Well, so much for glorifying the goblins.

What? How did it- Oh, wait. We’re in the middle of the wizarding world. I can be so oblivious sometimes! I should have gotten used to this by now, but I guess it’s not that easy. I thought. 

The cart slowed down and we all got out, all going in different directions. Hagrid went to find a pillar to lean on, Griphook went straight to the vault, while I followed Griphook but stayed a little behind and Harry stayed back with Hagrid. 

Griphook unlocked the vault door. A lot of green smoke came billowing out, but as it cleared out, I saw mounds of the gold, silver, and bronze coins piled on the ground. “All yours,” Hagrid said. So Hagrid was feeling better then. 

Hagrid apparently had bought a small bag each of me and Harry and piled some of each of the types of coins in both bags. 

“The gold ones are Galleons,” Hagrid explained to us. “Seventeen silver Sickles to a Galleon and twenty-nine knuts to a Sickle, it’s easy enough. Right, that should be enough fer a couple o’ terms, we’ll keep the rest safe for yeh.” Hagrid now turned to Griphook. “Now, the other vault, please, and can we go more slowly.”

“One speed only” Griphook said climbing back into the cart. We followed him. When we reached the other vault, Griphook didn’t think it was necessary to keep the number of the vault a secret so… “Vault seven hundred and thirteen” 

We got off again and headed to the vault, I noticed it had no keyhole. I was wondering how they opened the vault when Griphook said “stand back” and stroked the door gently with one of his long fingers and it simply melted away. I looked into the vault to see what was so important while Harry was asking Griphook some questions. 

When I looked into the vault, I didn’t see anything at first, but when I looked carefully, I saw a grubby little package wrapped up in brown paper on the floor. Hagrid hurried into the vault and tucked the package into his coat. I wanted to ask what was in it, but I knew that I would not be getting any answers. 

“Come on, back in this infernal cart, and don’t talk to me on the way back, it’s best if I keep my mouth shut,” Hagrid said before getting in the cart once again. 

This place was nothing like I had ever seen. There was one long stretch of a twisted dimly lit street, and shops were lined up on both sides, with no gaps between them. I felt like I entered a different era altogether, with witches and wizards bustling around within these shops which were built with bricks and wood and had a rustic feel to it.

I was so excited, huh, shopping sounds interesting all of a sudden. There were such cool things! “Might as well get yer uniform” Hagrid said nodding towards a shop with a sign that said… I squinted my eyes for a few seconds before realizing there was no point. I turned to Harry. “Madam Malkin’s Robes for all occasions” He replied. “Listen, Harry, Millie, would yeh mind if I slipped off fer a pick-me-up in the Leaky Cauldron? I hate them Gringotts carts” Hagrid asked. He still looked a little queasy. “No problem Hagrid,” I say at the same time Harry shook his head. 

Hagrid was off, while I skipped off to the shop with Harry walking behind me. I could tell Harry was nervous from being alone, so I shot him a reassuring look before we headed to the counter where Madam Malkin asked “Hogwarts, dears? I was just getting done with another boy going there,” She directed us to the back of the shop where we saw a boy with a pale pointed face standing on a footstool while a second witch pinned up his long black robes. 

Harry stood on the stool next to the boy while I waited for one of them to get done, waiting for my turn. “Hullo,” the boy said to the both of us. “Hogwarts too?” “Yup!” I answer, popping the ‘p’. 

“My father’s next door buying my books and Mother’s up the street looking at wands,” The boy said. “Then I’m going to drag them off to look at racing brooms. I don’t see why first-years can’t have their own. I think I’ll bully Father into getting me one and I’ll smuggle it in somehow.” This boy was starting to sound a lot like Duddly now. 

“Have both of you got your own brooms?” The boy asked us both. “Um…. no” I replied while Harry shook his head. “Play Quidditch at all?” “No…..” I say, wondering what in the world Quidditch was. Also, racing brooms? What? I’ll ask Hagrid about that stuff later. 

Harry was asked a few more questions by the boy while I zoned out, seems like they forgot me. Meh, whatever, I was too busy in my own thoughts anyway. When I got back into reality, the boy was saying “I say, look at that man!” he said nodding towards the front window. Hagrid was standing there, grinning at Harry and me holding large ice-creams for all three of us. 

“That’s Hagrid” Harry seemed happy to know something the boy didn’t. “He works at Hogwarts,” Harry continued. “Oh,” said the boy. “I’ve heard of him. He’s sort of a servant, isn’t he?” I got angry, sorry, but you can’t just insult the guy that took us away from the Dursleys and get away with it. “Hey!” I said, catching both Harry and the other boy’s(man, I really need to learn his name) attention. “He’s the gamekeeper, and just so you know, he is an amazing person, clearly unlike you.” Harry nudged me in the ribs to tell me to shut up. 

Before the boy could retort, the witch came back and told him “That’s you done, my dear” He got angry and stomped off. “He deserved that” I mumble to Harry as I get on the stool. The witch started taking my measurements. I didn’t look at Harry, not wanting one of his lectures about being nice to others. 

“Excuse me, ma’am, but what does the uniform consist of?” I ask as politely as possible. “Ok, well, first of all, since you were so nice to me, and put that kid in place, you can call me Malkin, and second of all, your uniform consists of black robes, a pointed black hat, a winter cloak, a tie that will change colors depending which house your in, a white shirt, grey sweater, and a grey skirt,” 

“A SKIRT?!?!?!” I almost scream. Everyone's heads turn to me. “Sorry, it’s just, I hate wearing skirts.” Madam Malkin shakes her head smiling at me. “Sorry, no choice there!” Madam Malkin said. “Nope! I absolutely refuse to wear a skirt” I say adamantly. “Fine. I’ll make a special adjustment just for you” Madam Malkin said smiling. “Ohhhhh! What is it?!” I ask, getting excited. She had finished taking my measurements by now. I motion for Harry to go and wait with Hagrid. 

Madam Malkin explains to me that she’ll turn it into skorts, which is a hybrid of a skirt and shorts. As she finished explaining it to me I hugged her hard “Thank you! Thank you! Thank you, Madam Malkin!” She chuckled and hugged me back. “Didn’t I tell you to call me Malkin?” she said in a mock scolding manner. “Yeah, you did, but I would prefer it if I could call you Madam Malkin,” I say with a smile. “I mean, it just sounds rude, calling someone older than me by their first name” I continue. 

She laughs and tells me “Okay, it’ll take me some time to finish up your skorts, so, can you come back in about 20 minutes?” She asks. “Yeah, sure! Thank you again, Madam Malkin!” I replied, running out of the shop. 

“Hey Hagrid, Harry!” I called. Harry was quiet while eating his ice-cream, while I, one the other hand, couldn’t stop talking about every single thing. Hagrid and Harry probably got annoyed at me at some point. 

I decided to get Harry to talk a bit. Being quiet for so long isn’t good for your vocal cords, and no, I’m not saying this because I love talking… Okay, maybe I am…

“What’s up Harry?” I ask. I mean, he is quiet, but not this quiet, by now he should have told me to shut up at least 5 times. 

“Nothing” He replied, and I could tell he was lying so I gave him one of my many signature looks, this time I gave him my ‘Seriously?’ look. He sighed and asked Hagrid about Quidditch. Oh yeah! I had forgotten about that! I need to start remembering the things I mentally take note of. 

“Blimey, Harry, I keep forgettin’ how little yeh know - not knowin’ about Quidditch!” Hagrid said. “Don’t make me feel worse,” Harry muttered. “I’m sure he didn’t mean it that way Harry,” I whispered in his ear. I zoned out again, looking at all of the shops around us. “So, what is Quidditch?” Harry asked again. 

“It’s our sport. Wizard sport. It’s like - like football in the Muggle world - everyone follows Quidditch - played up in the air on broomsticks” Oh, so that’s why the boy was talking about racing brooms. “And what are Slytherin and Hufflepuff?” 

“School houses. There’s four. Everyone says Hufflepuff are a lot o’ duffers, but - ” Hagrid was cut off by Harry saying “I bet I’m in Hufflepuff” ''Hey! You are not a duffer” I say. “Better Hufflepuff than Slytherin,” Hagrid said darkly.

“Why?” I ask, suddenly interested. “There’s not a single witch or wizard who went bad who wasn’t in Slytherin. You-Know-Who was one.” “Vol - sorry - You-Know-Who was at Hogwarts?” Harry asked. “Years an’ years ago” Hagrid replied. 

After we finished up our ice-creams, we went to a shop called Flourish and Blotts where we bought all of my school books, which were surprisingly in ancient greek. I noticed that Harry’s were in English. I asked the shop owner about this, and he just said that someone had requested this especially for me. 

After that, we went to buy a cauldron, and Hagrid and I had to drag Harry away from buying a solid gold cauldron. We got the rest of our supplies for the potions class. Then we went to get other small things like ink and a quill.

I checked my list once again, and now we just had to get our wands. I can’t wait! “Just yer wands left - oh yeah, an’ I still haven’t gotten yeh yer birthday presents,” Hagrid said, I saw Harry go red and my eyes opened wide. “You don’t have to - ” “I don’t need - ” I and Harry said at the same time, but we both were cut off by Hagrid. “I know, I know. Tell yeh what, I’ll get yer animal. Not a toad, toads went out of fashion years ago, yeh’d be laughed at - an’ I don’t like cats, they make me sneeze. I’ll get yeh each an owl. All the kids want owls, they’re dead useful, carry yer post an’ everythin’” 

So we were on our way to Eeylops Owl Emporium. As we entered we were greeted by a lot, and I mean a lot of bird poop. Harry chose a snowy white owl, while I convinced Hagrid that I wasn’t responsible enough to handle a pet yet. He was stubborn at first but eventually caved in, knowing I wouldn’t give up. Harry was profusely thanking Hagrid for his owl since he didn’t get any presents for his birthday and neither did I. 

Hagrid promised to get me two presents for Christmas, but I said no. He waved me off. “Just Ollivanders left now - only place fer wands, Ollivanders, and yeh gotta have the best wands,”

We walk through the door to be greeted by a bell ding. “Mr., Ms. Potter! You here for your wands I presume?” I assumed he was Mr. Ollivander as that was the shop's name. Mr. Ollivander came back and handed us one wand each to try. 

I gave mine a wave and a spark shot out from the wand and went into the depths of the shop from where I heard a loud bang. I quickly place the wand down on the desk while Mr. Ollivander says “Oh, dear, no, not that one for you.” Harry tries his wand and it’s perfect so he buys it while I try out more wands. Ok, I admit it, I zoned out for a bit, but come on! You can’t expect a demigod with severe ADHD mind you, to focus for so long, plus the way Mr. Ollivander spoke was so...Well, let’s just say, I had to use all of my willpower to stay awake.

As I touched the second wand a sudden warmth hit me, apparently Mr. Ollivander, Hagrid and Harry could see it as all of their faces showed one expression, shock. “Yes, the wand has finally chosen someone, it was lying on these shelves for over 70 years.” Mr. Ollivander stated. “It’s that old?” I asked, “then it should have some kind of legend or something right, Mr. Ollivander?” I continue. 

“My, aren’t you a respectful one? Yes, you’re right, but you are not old enough to know the legend yet. Once you are of the right age and with the right people, they will tell you about the legend of the lost wand” Mr. Ollivander said mysteriously. “Oops, I’ve said too much!” 

“Mr. Ollivander! What is the legend?” I ask excitedly. “I’m sorry, I can’t say any more,” He replied. “That wand is made up of Alder wood with a dragon heartstring core 13inches and has surprisingly swishy flexibility.” Before I could ask more, Harry handed Mr. Ollivander the money and dragged me out of the shop. I was irritated at him. “Awwwww! Come on!!!!!! Why did you drag me out of there?”

“Leave it,” He said, shaking his head. “Why? You didn’t even give me an explanation!” I say. Harry opens his mouth to say something but is cut off by Hagrid saying “Well if that’s it, I should be dropping you back at the Dursleys.” “What? Why are we going back to the Dursleys?” I asked. “Because school doesn’t start till the first of September, then again, if you would've read your letter thoroughly, you would know,” Harry answered. “UGH! Whatever!” I say, now just irritated, and also because I didn’t have any good retorts at the time. 

“Oh, wait Hagrid! I completely forgot! We have to go to Madam Malkin’s shop!” I say suddenly remembering and coming to a halt, causing Harry to bump into me. “What? Why?” Harry asked. “I didn’t get my uniform!” “But that was the first place we went!” “Yes, but Madam Malkin said she needed to make some adjustments and...” We kept on bickering like that until we reached Madam Malkin’s shop. 

I asked Harry and Hagrid to wait outside while I got my uniform. “Madam Malkin!” I called as she comes out of the back of the shop. “I’m here to collect my uniform!” I say. “Here you go dear, go try them on to see if it fits.” She said handing me the skort. I tried it on and it fit perfectly. I changed back into my normal clothes before going out of the changing rooms to thank Madam Malkin. 

“Thank you again, Madam Malkin! Here is the money for the uniform and the extra money for the extra stitching!” I say handing her the money. “You have James’ enthusiasm,” she said, taking the money. “You knew my parents?” I asked. “Not exactly, but whenever they came for their robes, your father was exactly like you, all enthusiastic, while your mother was polite, you possess both of those qualities.” 

“Thank you again! You're a lifesaver. I mean, how can you make people wear skirts? That’s just plain evil!” I say, being the overdramatic person that I am. “Bye!” I call to Madam Malkin as I step out of the shop. “Bye!” She replies. 

“Wow, looks like Madam Malkin likes you a lot!” Hagrid exclaimed. “I know! I’m so awesome, you can’t help but like me! Everyone loves me!” I say, flipping my hair, being the drama queen that I am. “Yeah, you're also the most modest person I have met” Harry muttered under his breath, not being very quiet. Unluckily for him, I and Hagrid both heard him. I swatted him on the arm. “That was rude!” I say. “And that hurt!” Harry said, now rubbing his hand where I had hit him. 

Hagrid interrupted us by saying “Yer tickets fer Hogwarts. First o’ September - King’s Cross - it’s all on yer tickets. Any problem with the Dursleys, send me a letter with yer owl, she’ll know where to find me.” He handed us one envelope each. I decided to open mine later. 

Hagrid also handed us some muggle cash. I look up at him confused. “That is fer yer train ride back to the Dursleys. Also, there’s some money in there from which yeh could buy yerself some decent clothes from one o’ those muggle shops” I didn’t know how to thank Hagrid, so I hugged him. “Thank you, Hagrid. Thank you for everything” I say happily. Hagrid then walked us to the train station and left us on the train. “See yeh soon, Harry, Millie” was the last thing he said to us before he left us all on our own. 

We took a train that led us somewhere near the Dursleys’ house. There was luckily a shop there where I and Harry bought some decent clothes to wear and some food to eat. I bought about 5 different kinds of leggings and a few hoodies and t-shirts. I also bought an outfit which I could use for working out, to keep fit. Hey, you need to keep fit when you're a demi-god. 

That reminds me, we didn’t get attacked the whole time. We were completely safe till we reached the Dursleys house and after that as well. This was kinda weird since I usually never stop getting attacked by monsters. Freedom feels nice.


	6. No way am I running through a wall!

Mine and Harry’s last month at the Dursleys was not bad, let me tell you. It was quite the opposite really. One of the fun things was that Dudley was so scared of us, he wouldn’t even stay in the same room as us. 

Aunt Petunia and Uncle Vernon didn’t even talk to us. I mean what could be more of a birthday treat than that? They pretended as if we didn’t exist. At first, it was good, but eventually, it got boring. Harry stayed in his room, and I spent most of my time there with him for company. What can I say? I get bored easily. Hedwig (That was what he decided to call his owl, I think it was a pretty name) was there chirping while we fantasized what all cool things could be there in the wizarding world. 

Whenever I had free time I read all of my books, wanting to finish them before school started just so I could brush up with whatever I needed to know. Aunt Petunia and Uncle Vernon were ignoring us and because of that, we had a lot of free time with nothing to do except read the books. I am confident I have memorized all of them. You don’t believe me? Well, pick up any of those books and ask me a question from it, I can answer it. Wanna bet? Thought so.

On the last day of August, we thought we should speak to Aunt Petunia and Uncle Vernon about taking us to King’s Cross station tomorrow. We decided to let Harry go speak to them since he’s kinder but I would be there for backup. As we got to the bottom of the stairs, Dudley screamed and ran out of the room. I wanted to laugh so badly, but I couldn't if I wanted my aunt and uncle to drop me to the station tomorrow. 

“Er - Uncle Vernon?” Harry asked. 

He simply grunted to let him know he was listening. “Er - We need to be at King’s Cross tomorrow to - to go to Hogwarts” 

He grunted again. 

“Would it be alright if you gave us a lift?” Grunt. We supposed that meant yes. 

We were just about to go back to the room when Uncle Vernon actually spoke. “Funny way to get to a wizards’ school, the train. Magic carpets all got punctures, have they” I wanted to say something back but Harry gave me a look that told me to shut up. “Where is this school anyway?” 

“I don’t know,” Harry said. Huh. I hadn’t really thought about that. I and Harry pulled out our tickets that Hagrid gave us. “We just take the train from platform nine and three-quarters at eleven o’clock” Harry read from his ticket. I was just observing mine which was again in ancient Greek. 

“Platform what?” Uncle Vernon asked, making me look up at him. “Nine and three-quarters” I reply this time. “Don’t talk rubbish” said Uncle Vernon, “There is no platform nine and three-quarters.” 

“It’s on my ticket,” I say. “Barking,” Uncle Vernon said. “Howling mad, the lot of them. You’ll see. You just wait. All right, we’ll take you to King’s Cross. We’re going up to London tomorrow anyway, or I wouldn’t bother” 

“Why are you going to London?” I blurted by mistake. “Taking Dudley to the hospital” growled Uncle Vernon. “Got to have that ruddy tail removed before he goes to Smeltings.” 

I and Harry make our way up the stairs, me trying very hard not to laugh at the memory of how Dudley got the tail. 

I was up all night reading through the books once more, double-checking that I double-checked that I had everything. I wore one of the outfits (without the bag) I bought from the shop. 

By 10:30 we had reached King’s Cross. Uncle Vernon dumped our trunks onto a trolley each and wheeled Harry’s into the station for him, leaving me to handle my own. Uncle Vernon suddenly stopped, I saw a nasty grin on his nasty face, I have to say, they go well together. “Well, there you are. Platform nine - Platform ten. Your platform should be somewhere in the middle, but they don’t seemed to have built it yet, do they?” 

He was right, there was no platform nine and three-quarters. “Have a good term” Uncle Vernon said with an even nastier smile. When we turned to look, the Dursleys were driving away. All three laughing. 

I and Harry share a scared look. I started to notice we were getting funny looks because of Hedwig. I was thinking about... Actually, I don’t really know, but Harry was asking a guard. Hagrid must have forgotten to tell us how to get on to the platform. Now we were going to miss the train and not be able to get to Hogwarts. I sigh in frustration. Going back to the Dursleys was the last thing I wanted to do. 

At that moment I heard someone say “ - packed with Muggles, of course -” I didn’t see where it came from but one look at Harry told me he had heard it too and I wasn’t just dreaming. I saw Harry go somewhere and I followed him thinking he was going after the person who had said that. 

The next thing I heard was when the woman said “Percy, you go first” I looked to see someone with flaming red hair march towards platforms nine and ten. Just then I realized that the whole family had flaming red hair, but I couldn’t focus on that, right now I needed to see how to get on to the platform. I watched as the boy reached the divide between the two platforms, a large crowd of tourists came swarming in front of him, and by the time the last rucksack had cleared away, the boy had vanished. 

“Fred, you next,” the plump woman said. “I’m not Fred, I’m George,” said the boy. “Honestly, woman, call yourself our mother? Can’t you tell I’m George?” “Sorry, George, dear.”

“Only joking, I am Fred,” said the boy, and he took off not letting his mom reply. His twin called after him to hurry up, and he must have done because a second later, he had gone - but how…?

Now the third brother was walking briskly towards the ticket barrier - he was almost there - and then quite suddenly, he wasn’t anywhere. 

“Excuse me,” Harry asked the plump woman. “Hullo, dears,” she said. “First time at Hogwarts? Ron’s new, too” She pointed at the last and youngest of her sons. He was tall, thin and gangling, with freckles, big hands and feet, and a long nose. 

“Yes,” said Harry. “The thing is - the things is, I don’t know how to - ” 

“How to get on to the platform?” she said kindly, and Harry nodded, while I smiled. 

“Not to worry,” she said. “All you have to do is walk straight at the barrier between the platforms nine and ten. Don’t stop and don’t be scared you'll crash into it, that’s very important. Best do it at a bit of a run if you’re nervous. Go on, go now before Ron.” “Um...No way am I running through a wall” I mutter to Harry, but it sounds like the other three heard me since they let out their own kinds of laughs. 

“Don’t worry, it works. You aren't going to be running into a wall, believe me” the boy said. I need to start learning people's names. “Let’s all go together then,” I say, I mean if they are serious, then they wouldn’t mind going with me. “Sure” the boy simply said. The boy went first then Harry followed behind him then me. 

I closed my eyes, waiting for the impact to come, but it never came. I opened my eyes only to be greeted by a scarlet steam engine waiting next to a platform. I was looking at the crowd on the platform. We did it! We did it! We made it onto the platform! We didn’t have to go back to the Dursleys for gods know how long!

Various colored cats were walking all around, owls hooting from their cages. The first few carriages of the train were occupied by students, some hanging out of the window to talk to their families, some fighting over seats. I and Harry pushed our way through the crowd hoping to find an empty compartment we could sit in. 

We finally found an empty compartment towards the end of the train. I saw Harry put Hedwig into the compartment while I got ready to lift my trunk. As Harry came back out to get his trunk, I lifted mine with one shove and put it in the compartment. Demigod strength, what can I say. I waited inside the compartment watching Harry try (and fail may I add) twice to get his trunk into the compartment to only drop it on his foot. 

I just got up to help him when two people stepped in front of me, backs facing me and they asked Harry “Want a hand?” I looked up to see they were the red-haired twins from before. “Yes, please” Harry panted, glaring at me. With the twins’ help, Harry got onto the train and put his trunk into the compartment as well. 

“Thanks,” Harry said while pushing his hair away. I was giggling from the corner of the compartment I was in, watching this whole exchange happen. “What’s that?” one of the twins asked, suddenly pointing at Harry’s scar. “Blimey,” said the other twin. “Are you - ” “He is” the first twin said “Aren’t you?” he added. “What?” Harry asked as the second twin looked around the compartment as if searching for something. His eyes landed on me and widened. 

“George” he called. I just smiled back sweetly. “You’re Harry and Millie Potter.” They chorused. Wow, they remind me of the Stoll brothers. Wait. I shouldn’t be thinking about that. I said something smart like “yeah” while Harry on the other hand said “Oh, him. I mean, yes, I am” 

The twins gawped at us. I was reddening under their gaze, but I was saved by a voice saying “Fred? George? Are you there?” “Coming mum” 

They took one last look at us before they got off the train to bid their family goodbye. Harry looked at me. “You couldn’t have helped me?” he said crossing his arms over his chest. “Hey, sorry for wanting to make fun of my brother!” I say raising my eyebrows for fun. I smile and look out of the window of the compartment to see the red-haired family saying their goodbyes. 

Their mother had taken out her handkerchief and grabbed her youngest son and started rubbing the end of his nose. “Ron, you’ve got something on your nose.” “Mum - geroff” the youngest son wriggled free. “Aaah, has ickle Ronnie got somefink on his noise?” said one of the twins.

“Shut up,” said Ron. “Where’s Percy,” their mother asked. “He’s coming now” 

The oldest boy came striding into sight. He had already changed into his Hogwarts robes and there was a shiny red and gold badge on his chest with the letter ‘P’ on it. 

“Can’t stay long mother” he said. “I’m up front, the Prefects have got two compartments to themselves - ” Ok, I zoned out completely there. My ears perked up again when I heard the sentence “Blown up a toilet? We’ve never blown up a toilet!” One of the twins was saying. I zoned out after that, thinking about the different kinds of pranks I could be doing. The prank I did in second grade would have been so much easier if I had a flying spell, I wouldn’t have had to sneak into the school at midnight, just got it ready while everyone else was in class. I could do such cool pranks with magic on my side! I heard a whistle sound. 

The next thing I knew, the platform disappeared as the train rounded a corner and the compartment door slid open. I saw the youngest of the red-headed brothers come in. “Anyone sitting there? Everywhere else is full.” He asked, pointing at the seat next to Harry. 

“Nope!” I say while Harry shook his head. Wow, in these past few days Harry has been shaking his head a lot. I need to get him to talk more. “Hey, Ron.” The twins were back. 

“Listen, we’re going down the middle of the train - Lee Jordan’s got a giant tarantula down there.” “Right,” Ron mumbled. “A tarantula?” I ask getting excited. “That’s so cool!” “Isn’t it? You want to come with us?” the other twin asked. “Yes!” I look at Harry for consent and he nods. I pump my hand into the air and follow Fred and George out of the compartment. 

“Mil, is it okay if we call you Mil?” the first one asked. I wince at the nickname Annabeth, Thalia and Luke used but nod “So Mil, we haven’t formally introduced ourselves, although you probably know who we are, we are that famous. I’m Fred” the other one said. “And I’m George” the first one finished. 

“You know, you remind me awfully of the Stoll brothers, they weren’t twins exactly, but they looked so alike even though they were two years apart. You guys are twins right?” I asked in mock suspicion. They both gasp as if they were offended. I smile at their over dramatics. We were going to become best friends, I mean except for the fact that I will always remain the most dramatic of the group no matter what. 

“How dare you say that?” Fred, I think asks. George was about to add something but a voice came interrupting them. “Oi! Fred, George, come check out Venom!” Fred and George pulled me into another compartment. There was a boy who I guessed was Lee Jordan and there was a tarantula (that was apparently named Venom) crawling up his hand. 

“Oh, my gods!” I gasp. I don’t know why but I always had a fascination for animals. “Fred, George, plan on introducing your beautiful friend here?” Lee asked. I blushed at the compliment. “I’m Millie, Millie Potter,” I say. “Your Sirius?” (A/N: Pun totally intended) he asked. I smile and nod. “Well, I am overjoyed to have an opportunity to meet the wonderful, beautiful Millie Potter myself. I am Lee Jordan,” he said, taking my hand and placing a kiss on it. Who said chivalry was lost. I was all flustered. Giggling, I said, “Thank you!” 

Wait! Did I just giggle? I don’t giggle! Millie Potter does not giggle! 

“Would you care to introduce me to your friend here?” I ask pointing to Venom. “Sure. This here is Venom!” he said holding his hand up to my eye level so I could observe the Tarantula. I jerked my hand up, asking permission to take Venom onto my hand. 

He tilts his hand allowing Venom to crawl onto my hand. “Hey, little guy” I mutter to Venom, admiring him. “He seems to like you,” Lee said. “Well, everyone and everything likes me! What can I say? I’m amazing” I say flipping my hair. We all laugh as Fred says “George, she might take our spot as the most dramatic if we don’t step up our act!” 

“Well, get ready to be the second and the third most dramatic people in the school!” I say standing up proudly. We all burst out into laughter again. We talked about random things for a while like the twins and Lee explained to me about Quidditch, the different houses, and many more things before the compartment door slid open. 

A smiling dimpled woman was standing in the frame. “Anything off the trolley dears?”

Me, not having eaten anything for breakfast because of my excitement, jumped up immediately seeing candy on the trolley. Then I realized I didn’t know any of these candies, so I looked back at Lee and the twins. “Hey guys, I have no idea about these sweets, any suggestions?” Fred and George were holding up a packed sandwich each. “We’re packed, but I would take the Bertie Botts Every Flavour Beans and the Chocolate Frogs, they’re my personal favorites,” George said. Lee got up and got some sweets for himself while I contemplated on what to get. 

I finally decided to get something for everyone in the compartment, I mean, I did have the money, plus its candy! Come on! I got about two of everything and stuffed it onto the empty seats of the compartment while the others were staring at me like ‘what the actual heck?’. I chuckled to myself before “What? What are you staring at me for? Do you actually expect me to eat all of this by myself?” I ask. 

That snapped them out of their shock. All four of us started to dig into our sweets, Fred, George, and Lee suggesting different sweets to eat. I tried the Bertie Botts every Flavour Beans and was lucky enough to get a lemon-flavored one. What? What are you guys looking at me for, huh? I love sour things! They managed to make their way onto my list of top 10 favorite sweets, along with lemon drops, chocolate frogs, cauldron cakes, acid pops, and Drooble's best blowing gum (we had a competition to see who could blow the biggest without it popping, and I won, although the others wouldn’t admit a first-year won over them). 

I decided I had been here too long and decided to go sit with my brother for the rest of the train ride. I picked up the remaining part of my sweets, leaving some for the other three, and stuffed them in my pockets before I bid Lee and the twin's goodbye, and left extra dramatically, flipping my hair and the whole deal. 

I could hear them sniggering as I left, but I didn’t turn back as that would ruin the over dramatics. I went to go find Harry’s compartment again. I was walking through the train when I bumped into someone and landed on the floor, on my butt. Wow, I must have looked so stupid. 

I got up and looked to see a guy in yellow robes, he started apollogising (A/N: pun totally intended again. I'm so punny! XD) immediately. “Hey, it’s fine!” I say. “Oh, I’m really sorry!” he says again before walking off to wherever he had to go. I looked in the direction he headed in weirdly before going back to searching for Harry’s compartment. I finally found it.

I entered and sat down with a dramatic sigh. “Hey! Finally decided to come back huh?” I hear Harry ask, but I’m too busy looking at their compartment which is filled with all kinds of sweets and their wrappers. “Harry James Potter!” I say sternly. “How could you buy so many sweets?! You should know this will not be good for you later. This is why I shouldn’t leave you alone even for a minute! But then again, I bought so many sweets myself, so I have no right to say anything.” I say simply. 

I took out all of my sweets and we all started to talk and get to know each other better (not me and Harry, but you get the idea). We were almost done with all the sweets that we had bought, which was a crazy amount, when the compartment door slid open, revealing three boys, one of whom I recognized, I started to glare at him immediately, so I didn’t see who the other two guys behind him were. 

It was the pale, blonde guy from Madam Malkin’s shop. “Is it true?” he said. “They’re all saying that Harry and Millie Potter are in this compartment.” “Yes,” Harry and I say at the same time, equally harshly. “Oh, this is Crabbe and this is Goyle,” he said pointing at the two boys behind him. “And my name’s Malfoy, Draco Malfoy.” 

Ron gave a small cough, which I figured was to cover up a snigger. 

“Think my name’s funny, do you? No need to ask who you are. My father told me all about the Weasleys, red hair, freckles, and more children than they can afford” Malfoy said. Okay, even though I didn’t know Ron that well, I couldn’t bear anyone bullying anyone, I was the victim at some point and I knew how it felt. “Do you really need me to repeat the statement I said at Madam Malkin’s shop?” I say rolling my eyes as he looks at me.

Have I ever mentioned I’m quite good and infuriating people? He got really mad and figured that there would be no use in trying to have a conversation with me and turned to Harry. “You’ll soon find out some wizarding families are much better than others, Potter. You don’t want to go making friends with the wrong sort. I can help you there.” He held out his hand for Harry to shake. 

Harry hesitated, making me wonder if he was going to betray me and become friends with him. I know betray sounds like too big a word, but twins have an unspoken rule that is we don’t betray each other no matter what. I was wondering whether I should answer for Harry or not, I decided not, I should let him fight his own battles, but if it gets too bad, I’ll jump in. 

Ugh, getting lost in my thoughts again. “I think I can tell who the wrong sort are for myself, thanks,” Harry said looking Malfoy up and down. Now, thats the Harry I know! Whoo Hoo! Good going!

Malfoy went slightly red. “I’d be careful if I were you, Potter,” he said slowly. Why did he say, Potter? Hello, There are two of us here! I’m alive and well you know! “Unless you’re a bit politer you’ll go the same way as your parents.” “Hey! Don’t you go talking about our parents! You’re not even worthy to think about them” I say. I get defensive whenever someone says anything about my parents.

He gave us one last look before storming out. I was fuming.

We all sat down and I was about to say something when there was a knock on the compartment door and a round-faced boy came in. He looked like he was about to burst into tears any second. I wanted to comfort him, but I didn’t even know the guy. 

“Sorry,” he said. “But have you seen a toad at all?”

We shook our heads, and he walked out looking even closer to crying.

“Don’t know why he’s so bothered,” Ron said after he left. “If I’d bought a toad I’d lose it as quick as I could. Mind you, I bought scabbers so I can’t talk.” I laughed, looking at the snoozing rat in Ron’s lap.

“He might’ve died and you wouldn’t know the difference,” Ron said in disgust. “I tried to turn him yellow yesterday to make him more interesting, but the spell didn’t work. I’ll show you look...” He rummaged around in his trunk and pulled out a very battered-looking wand. It was chipped in places and something white was glinting at the end. 

He had just raised his wand when the compartment door slid open again. Can’t people give us some peace for Hades’ sake! Apparently not. The toadless boy was back, but this time he had a girl with him. She was already wearing her new Hogwarts robes. 

“Has anyone seen a toad? Neville’s lost one” she said. She had a lot of bushy brown hair and rather large front teeth. “We’ve already told him we haven’t seen it,” Ron said, but the girl wasn’t listening, she was looking at the wand in his hand instead.

“Oh, are you doing magic? Let’s see it, then”

“Er - all right, sunshine, daisies, butter mellow, Turn this stupid, fat rat yellow” he waved his wand, but nothing happened. Scabbers stayed grey and fast asleep. “Are you sure that’s a real spell?” The girl asked.

“Well, it’s not very good, is it? I’ve tried a few simple spells just for practice and it’s all worked for me. Nobody in my family’s magic at all, it...” She kept on talking for a while. I heard her say she memorized all the books as well. Cool! Harry and Ron shared a nervous look though. I felt like laughing at their expressions. 

“I’m Ron Weasley,” Ron said. “Harry Potter,” Harry said next. Just then I realized everyone was looking at me, oops, I had to introduce myself. “The one and only, amazing Millie Potter is who you are looking at!” I say standing up and curtsied. Harry rolled his eyes, while Ron was trying not to snigger and Hermoine was blank-faced, probably wondering how to handle all of this awesomeness. (A/N: I know she sounds a lot like Apollo here, doesn’t she?) 

“Are you really the Harry and Millie Potter?” the girl said. She continued to talk while I zoned out again, man, she talks a lot. I mean I know I do too, but like I’m supposed to be the talkative one! Right now, I’m pouting mentally. I snap out of it when I hear the girl say “Anyway, we’d better go and look for Neville’s toad. You three had better change into your robes, you know, I expect we’ll be there soon” 

Just as she was about to leave “Hey!” I called. “I’ll help you find your toad.” I grab my clothes to change into and follow behind the other two who decided to split up. The girl whose name I learned as Hermione, waited for me as I changed and put my clothes back in my trunk, and then we were off stopping in every compartment and asking for a toad. I never thought my life would come to this.

We entered yet another compartment when I noticed the yellow-robed boy from before. “Hey again!” I say as he spots me. “I see we meet again. Have any of you seen a toad?” I ask. They all shake their heads. The boy from before stands up, holding out a hand says “I’m Cedric Diggory” I take it and nod “Millie Potter.” I smile and leave them staring at the spot where I was before I left. 

I asked in every compartment I saw, some people were extremely irritated, but others were pretty nice, but I still couldn’t find the toad. I found Hermoine and told her we should tell Neville we couldn’t find his toad and head back to our compartments and we were already starting to slow down. 

As I opened the door to Harry and Ron’s compartment a voice sounded throughout the train. “We will be reaching Hogwarts in five minutes’ time. Please leave your luggage on the train, it will be taken to the school separately.” I was glad because I did not want to be hauling my trunk up to the school. 

Harry and Ron were stuffing the last of the sweets into their pockets and I shot them a dirty look, they hadn’t left any for me. Harry should know how I am without my chocolate. 

When the train had finally stopped we all got off on to a tiny, dark platform. Then a lamp came bobbing over the heads of the students and I heard a familiar voice saying “Firs'-years! Firs'-years over here! All right there Harry, Millie?” Hagrid asked. 

I pushed through the crowd, ignoring the dirty looks from people I was getting and hugged Hagrid. I don’t know what made me do this, so don’t ask. I guess I was just excited. 

“C’mon, follow me - any more firs’-years? Mind yer step, now! Firs’-years follow me” Hagrid said patting my back, which felt like a hard massage, but I went along. 

Slipping and stumbling, we all followed Hagrid. It was so dark either side of us I couldn’t see what was 5 meters in front of me. “Yeh’ll get yer firs’ sight o’ Hogwarts in a sec,” Hagrid said. There was a loud “Oooooooooh!” 

The narrow path had opened suddenly on to the edge of a great black lake. Perched on top of a high mountain on the other side, it’s windows sparkling in the starry sky, was a vast castle with many turrets and towers. 

“No more’n four a boat!” Hagrid called to us. I didn’t realize until then that there was a fleet of little boats sitting in the water by the shore. I sat down in a boat that was empty at first but later got occupied by two boys and one girl that kinda had a pug like face. 

“Everyone in? Right then - FORWARD!” Shouted Hagrid. All the boats started moving at once. Everyone was silent, staring up at the castle, we didn’t even bother getting to know who we were sitting with, in our boats. 

We kept on gliding over the glass smooth water until we reached a kind of underground harbor, from where we climbed out on to rock and pebbles. 

I was looking around the place when I heard Hagrid shout “Oy, you there! Is this your toad?” “Trevor!” Neville cried holding out his hands. Oh thank god he got his toad back, he looked so sad about it. Also, we had to do so much work! But I guess I met some interesting people as well.

We clambered up a passageway in the rock after Hagrid’s lamp. We finally reached on to a smooth, damp grass right in the shadow of the castle.

We walked up a flight of stone steps and crowded around the huge, oak front door. 

“Everyone here? You there, still got yer toad?” Hagrid lifted up a gigantic fist and knocked three times on the castle door. 

The door swung open at once. A tall, black-haired witch in emerald-green robes stood there. She had a very stern face, and I was slightly disappointed because that means I would be able to do fewer pranks and not be able to mess around. 

“The firs’-years, Professor McGonagall,” said Hagrid. “Thank you, Hagrid, I will take them from here” 

Her eyes scanned over the group and landed on me, I thought I almost saw her smile a little. She pulled the door wide, and I smiled at Hagrid as he left. The Entrance Hall was so big you could have fitted the whole of the Dursleys’ house in it. 

The stone walls were lit with flaming torches like the ones at Gringotts, the ceiling was too high to make out and a magnificent marble staircase facing us led to the upper floors.

Looking around at all the ancient architecture reminded me of Annabeth and how she would have loved to see all of this. 

We followed Professor McGonagall across the flagged stone floor. She took us into a small empty chamber. We all crowded in standing quite close together. We were all nervous about what awaits us. 

“Welcome to Hogwarts,” said Professor McGonagall. “The start-of-term banquet will begin shortly, but before you take your seats in the Great Hall, you will be sorted into your houses. The Sorting is a very important ceremony because, while you are here, your house will be something like your family within Hogwarts. You will have classes with the rest of your house, sleep in your house dormitory and spend your free time in your house common room. The four houses are called Gryffindor, Hufflepuff, Ravenclaw, and Slytherin. Each house has its own noble history and each has produced outstanding witches and wizards. While you are at Hogwarts, your triumphs will earn your house points, while any rule-breaking will lose house points. At the end of the year, the house with the most points is awarded the House Cup, a great honor. I hope each of you will be a credit to whichever house becomes yours. The Sorting ceremony will take place in a few minutes in front of the rest of the school. I suggest you all smarten yourselves up as much as you can while you are waiting.” 

Wow. That was a long speech. You might be wondering how I paid attention to all of that. Well, everything she had said was pretty interesting, and I wanted to know everything I could. “I shall return when we are ready for you. Please wait quietly” Professor McGonagall said before she left the chamber. I heard Harry and Ron talking about something but I wasn’t paying attention. I was revising everything from my books in case I would need it. 

Then something happened which made everyone jump in the air. About twenty ghosts had just streamed through the back wall. Pearly-white and slightly transparent, they glided across the room talking to each other and hardly glancing at the first-years. I and Harry would never have imagined this.

“New students!” one of the ghosts who had spotted us had said. They asked the other students some questions before Professor McGonagall returned. “Now form a line and follow me,” she said. We all got into a line, pushing each other and walked out of the chamber, back across the hall, and through a pair of double doors into the Great Hall.

Just then I had realized that Hermione was standing behind me. The Great Hall was huge! It was lit with thousands and thousands of candles that were floating in mid-air over four long tables where the rest of the students were sitting. At the front of the room was another long table where the teachers were sitting, Hagrid included. 

Professor McGonagall led us up to the front of the room, hundreds of students were watching us, as I’ve mentioned before I’m quite good with attention, but there were hundreds of students staring at us, and we had no idea what to do. 

I looked at the ceiling which was showing the starry night we had seen outside before coming into the castle. I heard Hermione whisper from behind me “It’s bewitched to look like the sky outside, I read about it in Hogwarts: A History” 

I looked down again to see Professor McGonagall silently place a four-legged stool in front of us and a pointed wizard hat on top of it. The hat was patched and frayed and extremely dirty. A rip near the bottom of it opened wide like a mouth and it started to sing:

“Oh, you may not think I’m pretty,

But don’t judge on what you see,

I’ll eat myself if you can find

A smarter hat than me. 

You can keep your bowlers black,

Your top hats sleek and tall,

For I’m the Hogwarts Sorting Hat

And I can cap them all. 

There’s nothing hidden in your head

The Sorting Hat can’t see,

So try me on and I will tell you

Where you ought to be.

You might belong in Gryffindor,

Where dwell the brave at heart,

Their daring, nerve and chivalry

Set Gryffindors apart;

You might belong in Hufflepuff,

Where they are just and loyal,

Those patient Hufflepuffs are true

And unafraid of toil;

Or yet in wise old Ravenclaw,

If you’ve a ready mind,

Where those of wit and learning,

Will always find their kind;

Or perhaps in Slytherin

You’ll make real friends,

Those cunning folk use any means

To achieve their ends.

So put me on! Don’t be afraid!

And don’t get in a flap!

You're in safe hands (though I have none)

For I’m a Thinking Cap!”

The whole Hall burst into applause while I was thinking 1. The hat speaks 2. A hat gets to decide our future?!? Professor McGonagall now stepped forward holding a long roll of parchment. 

“When I call your name, you will put on the hat and sit on the stool to be sorted,” she said. “Abbott, Hannah!” A pink-faced girl with blonde pigtails stumbled out of line, put the hat on, which fell right down over her eyes. A moment’s pause - 

“HUFFLEPUFF!” the hat shouted. The said table cheered and clapped as Hannah went to sit down. A few more people went the same way, and I zoned out. All of this was amazing, but I still can’t focus on anything for too long.

I looked at the tables hoping to find Lee or the twins, but instead, I found Cedric Digorry waving and smiling at me from the same table that Hannah had sat down on, so I figured he was in Hufflepuff too. I smiled and waved back, then continued looking for the other familiar faces. 

I spotted Fred, George, and Lee watching all the first-years and with mischievous glints in their eyes like they were planning something, I’ll have to talk about this with them later. Fred saw me looking at them suspiciously and smiled sheepishly. He then caught the attention of the other two, said something, and pointed at me. 

I smiled and waved, they did the same, then I put two fingers pointing to my eyes then at them, showing that I was watching them closely. 

“Potter, Harry!” That caught my attention. Harry looked extremely nervous so I gave him an encouraging smile. He nodded slightly showing he was ready and walked up to the stool. 

There were whispers all around us, people pointing at Harry and me. As soon as the hat covered his eyes, all the whispering stopped as they watched closely. He was sitting there for about five minutes before the hat shouted “GRYFFINDOR!” I clapped and cheered along with the Gryffindor table which got me some weird looks, but I didn’t care, I would do anything for my brother and I knew cheering for him would give him a little confidence. 

As the cheering died down “Potter, Millie!” There were whispers again, but not as much as before. I went and the hat went over my eyes, and I could see only black. I jumped a little when a voice spoke in my head. “Hmm...I thought your brother there was difficult to sort, but you’re even harder...Brave for sure, being a demi-god, cunning as well, quite curious and absorbs information well, loyal, but not patient for sure, so Hufflepuff is out...no… it's either Slytherin or Gryffindor….Ah...better be………..”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A/N: Cliffhanger! Which house do you think Millie is going to end up in? Comment!


	7. Tickling a Pear? Really?

“SLYTHERIN!” the hat shouted to the rest of the Hall. I was in shock. I remembered all the bad things I heard about this house, its reputation. I looked at Harry for consolation, and he nodded encouraging me a little. I realized no one was clapping or cheering for me, I tried not to feel bad, which wasn’t that hard seeing that I was in shock. Everyone was staring at me waiting for my reaction. I was starting to hate all of this attention. 

I just kept a poker face and my legs took me to the Slytherin table where I sat down in the corner far from everyone. I was the odd one out again. I was at camp and now Hogwarts too.

Wasn’t there any place that I could fit in? Where everyone could just accept me? Apparently not. I saw Draco Malfoy looking at me from the other side of the table in shock at first then it turned to a smirk. He was probably thinking about how he could torment me now that I was in the same house as him. I wanted to wipe that smirk right off his face forever. 

“Turpin, Lisa!” called Professor McGonagall snapping out of her astonishment. Slowly everyone started getting their attention back to the sorting. I kept my head down, observing the table. The only time I looked up was when Ron’s name was called, he was put into Gryffindor. I gave him a small smile, which I’m pretty sure no one noticed. 

I saw Fred, George, and Lee giving me wary looks. I could feel the gaze of many people burning into the back of my head but didn’t look up. I just wanted to cry and let it all out. Finally, the sorting was done and Albus Dumbledore got to his feet. He opened his arms wide. “Welcome!” he said. “Welcome to a new year at Hogwarts! Before we begin our banquet, I would like to say a few words. And here they are: Nitwit! Blubber! Oddment! Tweak!”

Yes, he was definitely mad. I’d have to ask one of the teachers who had written my letter in ancient greek. I looked at the table and my eyes opened wide. The dishes in front of me were now piled with food. 

I would have eaten almost all the food on my side of the table if I hadn’t lost my appetite. I just had one chicken leg. People were talking all around me, but I wasn’t paying attention to any of them. 

I saw Hagrid looking at me from the teachers' table and I met his gaze, feeling more guilty than ever. Why did I have to be no good at anything? I can’t do a single thing right. I looked further down the table and saw Professor Quirrell talking to another teacher. All of a sudden my scar started hurting. I hissed holding it. I saw the other Professor observing me and Harry carefully. 

A frown formed on my face. “That’s Professor Snape” I heard someone say from beside me. Whoa! There was no one beside me like two seconds ago, I swear! “I’m Amelia, Slytherin Prefect” (A/N: I didn’t know who the Slytherin Prefect was so I made up a new character) she said. I nod, I knew I didn’t need to introduce myself, everyone already knew who I was. 

“Are you okay? You haven't really eaten much” she said. “I’m fine” I mumble. “You really should eat more, you know? You're very thin as it is, if you don’t eat you’ll become a stick.” I laugh at this. “Okay, mum!” I say smiling and taking a bit of mashed potatoes. She laughs and continues eating. 

She didn’t ask me many questions which I was grateful for. She didn’t even act like I was a celebrity again, grateful. Dumbledore stood up after everyone was done eating and started a speech about rules and blah blah blah. I didn’t listen. I just heard the last part where he said: “And finally, I must tell you that this year, the third-floor corridor on the right-hand side is out of bounds to everyone who does not wish to die a very painful death.”

He then said something about a song and a long golden ribbon flew out of his wand and twisted itself into words. “Everyone pick your favorite tune!” 

The school bellowed:

“Hogwarts, Hogwarts, hoggy Warty Hogwarts,

Teach us something please,

Whether we be old and bald

Or young with scabby knees,

Our heads could do with filling

With some interesting stuff,

For now they’re bare and full of air,

Dead flies and bits of fluff

So teach us things worth knowing,

Bring back what we’ve forgot,

Just do your best, we’ll do the rest, 

And learn until our brains all rot.”

After everyone was done “Ah, music.” Dumbledore said “A magic beyond all we do here! And now, bedtime. Off you trot!” 

“Follow me, okay?” Amelia told me. I nod before she goes off to gather all of the other first years. The Prefects led us down some stairs and into the dungeons. We reached a blank wall where the prefect said “This is the entrance to our common room. There will be a password change every week and it will be put up on the notice board. For this week the password is Pureblood!” As he said the password, a part of the wall flew open, revealing a huge room with green and silver walls, green couches, and fireplaces with green fires. Apparently, Slytherin loves its green. 

There were windows, and fish swimming outside them. We must be under the lake we crossed! I heard Ameilia chuckle, probably because of my expression. “Yes, we are underwater, in fact, the same lake you crossed to get here!” she said. “Girls dormitories are at the top of the stairs on the right, you’ll find your names on the door, and same for the boys on the left.” the other prefect announced. They dispersed us, getting back to whatever duties they had to do. 

I went straight up to the Dormitories where I found my bed: five four-posters hung with Emerald green curtains. I found a bed near the window, again fish were swimming around, and saw that my trunk was already there. The door to the room opened and I saw four girls come walking in. 

They all gave me dirty looks before one of them came and pushed me, probably trying to push me on the ground, but failed miserably. Come on! Demi-god strength, but she doesn’t know that. Ha! I rolled my eyes. “Yeah, I’d suggest not getting into a fight with me.” was the last thing I said before crashing onto the bed and falling into a dreamless sleep. 

The next morning I woke up to a huge squid (yes, the Giant squid) outside the window. Yeah, I know, a great sight to wake up to. I stretched and went to get ready for the day. The other girls were still sleeping, I would have played a prank on them, but I was too down for that. As I finished with the bathroom, the other girls were starting to wake up. Not wanting to deal with them so early in the morning, I took my bag and stuffed my books in it before heading down to the common room.

I saw Malfoy coming down the stairs, he came and intentionally bumped his shoulder into mine expecting me to fall down. I sigh and stick my leg out and watch him fall on to the ground. “Hey, you blood traitor!” someone called to me, but I didn’t let it bother me, I just kept my walls up and my poker face on. 

I saw Amelia sitting on a couch reading something. I went to say good morning, but people tried to trip me or push me onto the ground the entire way, calling me names. “Good morning!” I say, feeling a little better than yesterday. “Hey! You’re awake already?” she asked. “Yeah, I can’t sleep in late no matter what,” I reply. “So you going to get breakfast?” “Yup!” I say. “Can I come with? My friends are still asleep” “Sure.” 

People continue to shove me or try to trip me all the way.

We walk in silence till we reach the Great Hall. From the second I stepped into the Great Hall, the whispers started. “Just ignore them” Amelia mumbled to me. I smile at her slightly. We sit down at the table and I take a bowl of cereal and start eating. “So, what’s your favorite subject?” I ask Amelia trying to make small talk. “Mine, personally, is Charms” she replied. “And how are the teachers?” We keep talking and getting to know each other while the Hall gets filled. At one point, it suddenly goes all quiet. I look up to see Harry at the entrance. I smile at him, and he does the same before walking and sitting down at the Gryffindor table. I see Fred, George, and Lee come in and sit down at their table and I wave to them, smiling, but they give me dirty looks. 

I felt like crying. The few friends that I had also now hated me, but I couldn’t cry, not here in front of everyone at least. Amelia must have seen my expression because she said “Hey if they really were your friends, your house wouldn’t matter to them” I gave her a grateful smile before going back to eating. 

I didn’t eat much for breakfast either, which is not like me, I’ll admit. I saw Professor Snape started to hand out timetables and as he reached me he said “Miss Potter, I would like to talk to you separately please” I got up and followed him ignoring the looks I was getting from the other students. “I am Professor Snape, your potions teacher,” he said once we were out of earshot of anyone. 

“Professor Dumbledore would like to speak to you after your classes today,” he said. “After your transfiguration class, Professor McGonagall will escort you there herself.” He handed me a timetable, then he started to walk off but I called “Professor!” He stopped and nodded very slightly to show he was listening. “I was wondering who had written my letter, I wanted to talk to them,” I say. “That is why you will be speaking to Professor Dumbledore,” he said before walking off. 

I was just standing there for a minute, not knowing what to do next, I mean this Dumbledore guy, who I didn’t even know, knew about the other part of my life. Then I realized I had classes and ran back to the Great Hall where I sat down, taking out my timetable. 

Today I had Potions, then Herbology, then lunch, and then Charms and Transfiguration. Whew, am I busy today! I hadn’t even finished my breakfast and it was almost time for class! I guess I’ll have to wait for lunch. 

I head towards the dungeons, following the other Slytherins in my year, where the class is supposed to be and I see Harry standing with Ron outside the classroom, I breathe a sigh of relief, at least I have someone with me in this class that I know. 

I wave ‘hi’ to Harry and go to stand next to him. Ron scowls at me. I was surprised at this behavior, we were getting along quite well on the train, what happened now? It must be because I’m in Slytherin. Why does my personality have to ruin everything! At camp first, now here?! 

I basically lost my second brother because of it, and now four other friends. 

Professor Snape called us into the class where we all took our seats. Every place was occupied, so I sat alone at the back of the class. Professor Snape started taking the attendance and paused at Harry’s name. “Ah, yes,” he said softly “Harry and Millie Potter. Our new celebrities.” 

I heard Malfoy and his goons snigger. “You are here to learn the subtle science and exact art of potion-making” Professor Snap began, he spoke in barely more than a whisper “As there is little foolish wand-waving here, many of you will hardly believe this is magic. I don’t expect you will really understand the beauty of the softly simmering cauldron with its shimmering fumes, the delicate power of liquids creep through human veins, bewitching the mind, ensnaring the senses… I can teach you how to bottle fame, brew glory, even stopper death - if you aren’t as big a bunch of dunderheads as I usually have to teach.” 

“Mr. Potter!” Snape said suddenly. “What would I get if I added powdered root of asphodel to an infusion of wormwood?” Harry had a confused look on his face. My hand shot straight up into the air. “I don’t know sir,” Harry said and Snape turned on me. “Yes, Ms. Potter” “you would make a sleeping potion so powerful it would be known as the Draught of Living Death,” I stated the exact sentence from the book. “Correct, Ms. Potter,” he said a slightly amused expression on his face. “Where would you look if I told you to find me a bezoar?” He shot at Harry again. I turned to look at him and saw Hermione sitting at the edge of her chair hand waving in the air. 

“I don’t know, sir,” Harry said again. Did he seriously not even read the books once? He turned to me. “The stomach of a goat,” I answered. “What is the difference between monkshood and wolfsbane?” He asked Harry again. Why was he targeting him? “I don’t know sir, but I think Hermione does, why don’t you ask her?” Harry said pointing at Hermione who was now standing on her feet and jumping up and down like she was trying to reach the ceiling. A few people laughed at this but Snape was irritated. 

“Sit down” Snape snapped (A/N: XD) at Hermione. “Ms. Potter?” He asked, turning to me. “I don’t know Professor.” I lied. I didn’t want to make a fool of Harry, we are twins, we look after each other. “You don’t need to step down to Mr. Potter's level just so he won't make a fool of himself Ms. Potter.” “I really don’t know Professor,” I said. I ain’t backing down this easily. 

“Alright then” he sneered. “For your information, monkshood and wolfsbane, they are the same plant, which also goes by the name of aconite. Well? Why aren’t you all copying that down?” I took out my book and wrote it down even though I knew all of it. 

Professor Snape put us all into pairs, I was alone, and made us start making a simple potion to cure boils. I followed the recipe to the letter, and by the end of class, was the only one who did it correctly. “Well done, Potter...10 points to Slytherin!” He announced to the class. 

I headed out of the class and towards Herbology. Herbology was fine, not the or my best subject, but not the worst either, plus I have so many more classes I haven’t even attended yet. After Herbology I went to lunch. “Good job!” I was congratulated by Amelia for earning house points. Even the other Slytherins were congratulating me, well in their own way. They weren’t glaring at me anymore or trying to trip me so I figured they were okay.

I sat down at the Slytherin table and was about to start piling food on my plate when I saw Harry come into the Hall and when he sat down at the Gryffindor table he waved for me to come and sit with him.

I told Amelia that I’d see her later and walked in the direction of the Gryffindor table with my books bag. I was about to sit down in front of Harry when one of the Weasley twins slid into my spot. I moved to the seat next to him but the other Weasley twin did the same. Once again, but this time it was Lee who did it. 

“Okay!” I say annoyed. “Why won't you let me sit here?” “Because you're a Slytherin and no Slytherins are allowed to sit here!” Fred, probably, said. I scoffed. “Well, would you at least let me talk to my brother?!” I ask. “Sorry, but we don’t talk to Slytherins” Lee answered this time. 

“Okay, listen here!” I snapped. “It’s fine if you won’t talk to me anymore, but what is your problem if I want to speak with my brother?” “You Slytherins are prejudice jerks and we won't let you affect any of the Gryffindors!” The other Weasley twin said. 

“You think WE are the prejudiced ones?! Really?! Well, then would someone please explain to me why you won't let me even talk to my brother? Is it just because we are in two opposite houses that hate each other for no reason!? You say we are the prejudiced ones, but yall are equally prejudiced, you know that! Thinking that we all hate Gryffindors and only think of blood superiority! I sat with you guys on the train! You tell me, would you have stopped talking to me if I was sorted into Gryffindor!? I can’t believe it! We could have been best friends, but no! She’s in another house, and we can’t be friends with her! Sure, some people in Slytherin think about blood purity, but not everyone does! I don’t know how many people must have been put down in the past years like this just because they were sorted into Slytherin! The Slytherins bully us because we’re not pure blood, and the Gryffindors bully us because we’re in Slytherin! No one deserves this, right Harry?!” I shouted. I looked towards Harry for support, but he was just looking down at the table not meeting my eyes. “Harry?” I ask a little softer. He still didn’t answer. I felt tears well up in my eyes. I turned around about to storm out of the Hall when I saw everyone's eyes were on me. “What?! You guys are no better than them!” I shout before storming out of the Hall. 

I didn’t stop, and I didn’t see where I was going. I thought Harry would stand up for me! I have so many times for him before! I even made a fool of myself for him! Tears were streaming down my eyes, I didn’t bother to wipe them. They weren’t sad tears, angry tears. 

I ran into a random corridor and sat down on the floor, my back flat against the wall. I wanted to sing my heart out. Yes, I sing, might have forgotten to mention that. I was holding on to my pendant and I let the tears stream out. All of a sudden, I had a guitar in my hands. I realized with a start that my pendant could become a guitar as well! That's so cool. I let out a shaky laugh before I started to strum a random tune on the guitar. 

This helped me calm down a little. I heard footsteps near the corridor and quickly transformed my guitar back into a pendant. “Hey!” I heard someone say, when I looked up I saw Cedric Diggory holding out a hand to help me up. I take it. “Thanks” I mumble. “No problem, you just looked a little down so....” “I’m fine now” “Sure, but you’ve got to be hungry, and I’m sure you don’t want to go back there” “Uh…. I’m fine” I said, but my stomach had to embarrass me by grumbling. 

“Sounds like you are!” He chuckled. “Yeah. So what?” I snap. I didn’t mean to, he was being so nice, but I just wasn’t in the mood. “Sorry, it’s just that I know the way to the kitchens if you like...” He said. “Oh...” I say feeling kind of embarrassed. “Yes, please.” He led the way, turning right and left and don’t ask the way, because I don’t remember. 

“Hey, I’m sorry I snapped earlier,” I said. “It’s fine, I get it, I mean, you just shouted in front of the whole school, and your brother didn’t stand up for you...” “Yeah, thanks...” I say looking at the floor. All of a sudden he came to a stop. I bumped into him. “Sorry” I mumble. He stepped in front of a painting and started tickling the pear. 

“Are you pranking me or something?” I ask. “No, this is the entrance to the kitchens.” I gave him a skeptical look. “What? I’m Sirius!” (A/N: Muahahahaha) he said defensively. Then, the painting swung open, and I gasped. Tiny little creatures were scrambling around with pointed ears and eyes the size of tennis balls.

“Wow!” I said. “What can Adrey get Mr. Diggory and his friend?” One of the creatures that scrambled to us asked. “I’m Millie Potter,” I said. “Oh my! Adrey is so happy to be able to serve Miss Potter!” she squealed. “What can Adrey get Mr. Diggory and Ms. Potter?” “I would just like some biscuits,” Cedric said. “Can I get a sandwich please?” I ask. “Miss Potter is so kind! Adrey will get it right away!” She said and scrambled off. 

“What are they?” I ask Cedric. “Those are house elves,” He replied. “They’re so sweet!” I say and Cedric chuckled. “So…..” Cedric said awkwardly. “So…..” I reply, mocking him before bursting out into laughter. “Wanna get to know each other better?” I ask. “Sure” “Wanna play 20 questions?” “What’s that?” 

Just then Adrey came scrambling back with a tray with some biscuits and some sandwiches. “Thank you so much!” I say. “Miss Potter is too kind,” she said before going off. 

“Ok, so twenty questions is a game where we take turns asking each other questions, but only 20, and we have to answer honestly,” I say. “Sure, can I start?” I nod. “How are you feeling?” he asked. We started to eat.

“Fine,” I said looking away. “You said you have to be honest, come on, I won’t make fun of you or anything,” he said. “Ok, fine. I...feel kinda betrayed by my brother.” “Hey, it’s fine...I’m here for you.”

I smiled at him “Thanks. My turn now. Why do you want to help me?” I asked. “Is it just because I’m the famous Millie Potter?” “No, if it were, my friends would be here right now. I just wanted to get to know you more, and you just seemed really sad so I came to see if you were okay. Also, those were two questions.” he said. 

“Ok fine, I skip a chance, your chance,” I say. “What’s your favorite color?” “Blue” “You sure, it’s not green?” I rolled my eyes, smiling at him. “That makes it two!” “Oh! You got me!” “My turn. What’s your favorite color?” “Yellow” I laughed “My turn...”

We went on like that for a while until I realized we were about to be late to class. We had done wayyyyyy more than 20 questions but talking cheered me up. I thanked him and was about to go to class until I realized I had no idea where I was going so Cedric dropped me off. 

I got weird looks from almost everyone except the teachers, who were not sure how to react if they were supposed to be offended I was saying the houses should corporate or if they should be proud that I actually enlightened everyone that every person is alike. The students were definitely the first one. 

No one would talk to me or even be my partner in class. For Charms, I had Professor Flitwick who was a tiny little wizard who had to stand on a pile of books to see over his desk. In today’s lesson, he started by taking the register. When he reached my name, he squealed with delight and almost toppled off his books in excitement. 

The rest of the class was pretty boring, we just sat there listening to Professor Flitwick talking about how wonderful charms is, we never got to experience it. *rolls eyes*

I now had Transfiguration, and I didn’t know the way so I followed the rest of the Slytherins to the class. As I sat down on a seat at the back of the class, I saw Professor McGonagall give me a proud smile, and I smiled back. As the class filled in Professor McGonagall started. “Transfiguration is some of the most complex and dangerous magic you will learn at Hogwarts,” she said. “Anyone messing around in my class will leave and not come back. You have been warned.” Then she changed her desk into a pig and back again. 

We started by taking extremely complicated notes, which were double difficult for me because of the English. After that, we were given a match and told to transform it into a needle. By the end of the class, I was the only one to complete the task. It was quite easy for me, well not the notes part, but you know. Professor McGonagall smiled at me. I was shocked. I didn’t expect the strict teacher to smile so much! 

She asked me to stay back after class. At first, I was confused, did I do something wrong? Then it hit me. Professor McGonagall was taking me to Professor Dumbledore. “Ms. Potter, you are very gifted in transfiguration. I will watch your progress till the end of the year and if it meets my expectations, you might be able to move to a higher level class” I nodded. It was going to be a lot of work without having a teacher breathing down my neck, but what can I do?

We reached a statue of a Gargoyle and Professor McGonagall said “Lemon drops” to it. It started turning and opened to a staircase moving upwards, kind of like a twisted elevator. Professor McGonagall stepped on to the staircase and motioned for me to follow her. I stepped on after her. 

The stairs led to a door that Professor McGonagall knocked. “Come in,” a voice said.


	8. Finally!!!

We went in. What? He told us to! I saw a room with a desk in the middle and its walls covered with moving pictures with frames and very cool artifacts that I had no clue about whatsoever. I saw a person in moon silver robes standing in front of the desk, he looked at us from above his moon-shaped spectacles. “Professor Dumbledore?” I ask. 

“Yes,” he says smiling. “Were you the one to write my letter? And request for my books to be in ancient Greek?” I ask. “The first one was done by Professor McGonagall and the second one yes.” I turned and smiled at Professor McGonagall to thank her. “So, you know?” I ask slowly, looking back at Professor Dumbledore. “Yes, but only the teachers know. You may not tell anyone about this, we know your brother knows about it, but tell no one else, or you will be putting them in danger as well.” 

I nod in understanding. “Also, Madam Pomfrey, the matron, has some Ambrosia in stock, we have had it for years, you are the first demi-witch in centuries almost. If you ever get hurt, go to her and she will give it to you.” “Thank you,” I say. “You don’t seem to be getting along with your roommates very well, and you can’t risk them finding out about your little secret, so we have arranged for you a separate room which is still connected to the Slytherin common room, so you won’t get lonely.” 

Wow, they really thought of everything. “I have one more thing to tell you, but you might want to take a seat for this.” Professor Dumbledore said gesturing to an empty chair in front of his desk. I did as he asked and looked up at him. 

Then Professor McGonagall spoke up. “I’m your godmother.” What?! “What?!” My brain turned fuzzy after that. “I will be leaving now, take your time to think please Millie...” she said before leaving. I sat there in shock for about 10 minutes before my brain started to function again. I was thankful Professor Dumbledore told me to sit down.

When I got my wits back I said “Professor, will there be monster attacks here?” trying to divert the topic so I can have more time to think about it. “Not as much as in the real world, but yes, there is always a chance, so be alert at all times. I am aware that you will need to keep practicing your skills. Follow me” He said, leading me to the seventh floor.

He stood in front of a perfectly hard wall before saying. “Walk to and fro three times imagining a place for you to train.” I did as he asked and when I opened my eyes I saw a huge door and when I entered it was the same as what I was picturing! “This is called the Room of Requirements,” Dumbledore said. 

“Anytime you need to practice anything, come here” I was admiring the room. “Wow!” I say hugging Professor Dumbledore but only reaching his waist. “Thank you!” I say. I yawned involuntarily. “Looks like you had a really long day, follow me, I’ll take you to your room” “But, Professor, what about my trunk and everything?” “It is already there for you” I tried to remember which way we were going. Maybe I was imagining it, but I thought I felt my pendant getting warmer against my neck. 

I was wondering what I would do if I got lost, which I would most likely do when Dumbledore came to a stop and said “Here is your room, it is password protected so no one can enter it without permission, also you won’t get lost, don’t worry, the pendant will get warmer as you get closer to the room. Professor McGonagall was very stressed out about telling you she was your godmother, so I suggest you think about it as soon as possible and talk to her” and with that, he was off. 

The password came naturally to me, “Halfblood” I said and the door swung wide open to show me my room. It was very plain, with white walls, a bed with white covers and my trunk on it and nothing else. I was a little disappointed after what I’d just seen. I imagined how cool my room would look if the walls were a cute pastel color and if my bed covers were blue. 

As I thought about this stuff, the walls turned a pastel purple and my bed covers sea blue, my favorite shade. Everything was exactly how I imagined it. I thought of a couch and it was there, I don’t know if it was my imagination or not, but I thought the size of my room had gotten bigger. I spent about another hour decorating my room how I would like it. 

When the room was done, most of it was blue, I had a small fireplace and a couch in front of it and a window with a beautiful view of the inside of the Black Lake. 

I drifted into sleep again dreamless, not feeling disappointed anymore. I woke up at around 5 and decided to practice my skills a little since it had been long. I changed into my training clothes and tied my hair into a high pony before heading out of my room with a water bottle. 

I went to the grounds and ran about one round of the castle before I stopped to drink a sip of water and I was off again. I finished 2 rounds by 6 and decided to go and practice some of my sword skills. I ran all the way up the stairs to the seventh floor. 

I started thinking about what I was going to say to Professor McGonagall. I wasn’t mad at her or anything, but I just wasn’t sure how to react to the fact that she was my godmother.

Once I reached the RoR, I started slashing up the dummies I had imagined up. After doing that for about half an hour, I started practicing hand-to-hand combat, then I moved on to throwing my daggers. By 8 o’clock, I was drenched in sweat and too tired to move. I wished I had a shower right here, and believe it or not, a shower appeared next to me. 

I took a quick bath and imagined my clothes and towel were here after they appeared, I got dressed and asked for my bookbag. When I was ready, I went down to the Great Hall ignoring everyone. I sat down at the Slytherin table, not even bothering to look up at Harry, that- who had ducked out when I needed him the most. 

Someone came and sat down next to me, I didn’t look up as I already knew who it was, Amelia, the only one who would bother to sit next to me. “I was so worried about you!” she said. “I waited in the common room for you, but you didn’t come! You said you always wake up early! And when I went to check in your dorm you weren’t there! Nor were your things, when I asked your roommates, they said they had no idea where you were, and nor did they care! I got so worried you had gotten expelled after yesterday, which didn’t make much sense since...” “Hey!” I said loudly, causing her to stop ranting. “I’m fine! I’m here!” She sighed to calm down. “Right, but then why weren’t your things in your dorm?” she asked. 

It was my turn to sigh, she just wouldn’t leave it would she. I shook my head smiling. “Ok, I’ll tell you, but later, I can’t tell you here.” She nodded. I finished my food and checked my timetable. 

Today I had History of Magic, Transfiguration, Charms then Defense Against the Dark Arts. I got up and went out of the Great Hall. 

I was lost. I figured asking students would be useless as they would only make fun of me. I asked the ghosts and they gave me directions, but they too were wary of me. I mean come on! They are dead, I can’t even hurt them!

History of Magic was the most boring class in the world! I have a hard time concentrating in class, but now when the teacher is a ghost (don’t ask), it’s worse. He didn’t even care if the whole class goes to sleep, he just says what he has to and finishes class. It was very hard for me to focus on his monotone voice. Half the time I was doodling on my page instead of writing down notes. Without realizing it, I had planned a whole prank on the sheet of paper. 

If I had the right spells, I could actually go through with this plan. It would take a lot of time, and effort, but it wasn’t impossible. I decided to go to the library and figure out and practice some spells that I might need. 

Next was Transfiguration. It was the same, taking notes and practicing the same spell as yesterday, so I asked Professor McGonagall if I could move on to the next spell. She helped me understand the next spell which I also performed easily. 

At the end of class, I packed my bag extra slowly, so that after everyone left I could talk to Professor McGonagall. “Professor McGonagall?” I ask. She looked at me. “Ms. Potter,” she said stiffening. 

“Professor, look, I’m sorry about yesterday. I didn’t react because I was in shock. I don’t hate you. I know you would have come and taken me from the Dursleys if you could have, something was probably stopping you.” I said. “You- You don’t hate me?” She asked, surprised. “No,” I said firmly before I hugged her. 

She was stiff at first, but eventually, she hugged back. “We have lunch now,” she said. “We should get going,” she sniffled. “Are you crying?” I ask looking up at her. “No, I’m fine,” she said. “Ok, can I come with you to the Great Hall?” I asked her. “Sure, just let me pack everything up” she replied. 

While she did so, I sat down on a desk and waited for her. “Can I call you Minnie?” I asked. She stopped what she was doing for a minute before she said “Sure” she cleared her throat. “Does it make you uncomfortable? I can find a new nickname if you like.” I said.

“No, no it’s fine… it’s just your father and his friends used to call me the same thing...” it was my turn to freeze. I came up with the same nickname as my father? Were we so alike? 

“Okay, I’m ready to go, are you ready Ms. Potter?” she asked. “Aww come on Minnie! Don’t call me Miss Potter, all formal! There isn’t even anyone here. Millie. That’s what you are going to call me” I said as we walked out of the classroom. 

“Ok, Millie,” she said. “Can you tell me stories about my parents?” I ask slowly. “Yes, but not now, we’re reaching the Great Hall, we can talk on the weekend,” she said before we stepped into the Great Hall. A lot of people looked at us, but I didn’t care. “Bye Minnie!” I whispered into her ear while hugging her before I walked over to the Slytherin table and sat down.

People were staring at me. People didn’t usually get away with hugging a teacher, especially not McGonagall. I looked at Professor Dumbledore, and he looked at me with an amused look. I smiled at him before I started piling food onto my plate. 

Amelia came and sat next to me and started eating and didn’t talk at all, making me wonder if she was completely oblivious to everything. I frowned before I went back to eating. I ate half of the table. I was finally back to normal! Yes! I realized I didn’t sacrifice any of my food to the fire for my father. 

I know what you’re thinking, why would you be doing that after what happened? Well, listen up, I was angry at the other gods and their children, my father did nothing bad, only good for me! He deserves this, no one sacrifices to him ever, at least his only child should. I looked around to see if there was a fireplace anywhere near me, but there wasn’t any in the Hall. 

By now, everyone was back to eating and talking normally. I looked at Dumbledore, pleadingly, and as if he read my mind, a fireplace appeared behind me making many people jump out of their seats. I made a mental note to write him a thank you letter as I probably wouldn’t get to talk to him for a while. Just a hunch. I got up and threw the best part of everything into the fire and prayed to my father. Hey dad! I hope you're doing fine. I’m really enjoying Hogwarts! 

Okay, I know it’s not a prayer really, but I like talking to him like that. I also know it was just lunch, but I don’t usually have dinner, I manage to skip it no matter how hungry I am. I finished up my food before I got out my timetable to check what I had next. I made my way to Charms, where Professor Flitwick was just as excited as the first class. 

I again finished earlier than everyone, but this time I decided to confirm the little details of my prank. By the end of class, I was done with every detail. I walked to my next class, Defense Against the Dark Arts. 

The class was pretty boring. The things we learned were interesting, but Professor Quirrell kept stuttering, so it turned pretty boring. I had earned house points from almost every class by now. After class, I was cornered by Harry. 

I tried to escape, but it didn’t work. Giving up, I said. “What do you want?!” “I wanted to apologize for the other day,” he said timidly. 

“I don’t want your apologies, and I don’t want to talk to you,” I said with finality. He moves out of the way and I head to the library. I still have to search up some spells for the prank. I didn’t think about Harry for the rest of the day. 

I stayed there till curfew until Madam Pince (the librarian) kicked me out. I’m almost ready for the prank. I’ll have to do it another day, for now, I’m too tired. As soon as I reached my room, I didn’t even bother to change, I crashed onto the bed and drifted off to sleep.


	9. Apollogies

I woke up early again, at around 6. I got ready in my school uniform and went to the Black Lake to get some homework done. I finished around 7:45 and was starving. What?! I told you when I’m normal I eat a lot!

I head to the Great Hall and see Amelia sitting there as if waiting for someone. I went and sat down next to her. “Hey! Are you waiting for someone?” I asked. “Yes!” “Who?” “you!” “Why would you be waiting for me?” “Because you still have some explaining to do” “What explain- Oh! Right! Sorry, I forgot, what’s the time?” I asked. “8:15” 

“Okay, I guess I can tell you now. We still have sometime before classes start.” I mumble the last part to myself. “Are you done eating?” I asked as I finished up my breakfast. “Yup!” she said, dropping her utensils on the table. “Okay, follow me,” I say, before I got up and went out of the Great Hall, Amelia followed behind me. 

I suddenly stopped as I heard footsteps behind me, and they were not Amelia’s. I turned around and saw a mop of blonde hide behind a pillar quickly. A mop of blonde that could only belong to one person I knew. I was about to call him out, but then came up with a different plan. 

I started walking again, but this time not towards my room, I couldn’t let Malfoy find out the location of my room. I started walking in a random direction. “Where are we going?” Amelia asked. “You’ll see,” I replied. 

I walked for about another 5 minutes until I reached a random corridor. I stopped suddenly and turned around. “Am I really that intriguing, Malfoy, that you have to follow me?” I say. 

“Following half-bloods? I’d rather pitch myself off of the Astronomy tower!” Malfoy said and Crabbe and Goyle, his ‘Followers’ shared a smirk. Malfoy bumped his shoulder into mine as he walked through me and Amelia. I let out a small laugh. “Okay, I’m sorry, I led you the wrong way because I could not let Malfoy know about this,” I said to Amelia. “Do you remember when Professor Snape called me out of the Great Hall yesterday?” I asked her. “Yeah...” “He told me that I had to see Professor Dumbledore, and when I went there, I found out that McGonagall is my godmother...” I waited for her reaction. “Oh, so that’s why you were hugging her before lunch!” she said.

“And Professor Dumbledore gave me my own room. It was like he knew I didn’t get along with my former roommates.” I say. “You get your own room!!!!! How is that even fair!?!?” Amelia almost shouted. “Can I see it?!” she asked, excitedly. “Sure, but after classes today?” I asked as breakfast was finishing. “Okay, fine, but today for sure!” she said pouting. 

I took out my timetable and I had Potions, History of Magic, and double Transfiguration, and then at 3:30, I had Flying!

“I’m heading to Potions, I’ve got to go, so Snape doesn’t shout or dock points off Slytherin, although he would probably not do that to Slytherin and find a way to blame it on one of the Gryffindors, most likely my brother saying “You should make sure your sister is on time from next class onwards, 10 points from Gryffindor!” and then Harry would go feeling bad because he lost points!” I say all of this very quickly. “What time and where?” Amelia asked. “Well, I have flying today at 3:30, so how does 5 sound?” I asked. “Sure! At the Black Lake!” “Deal!” I shout as I run off in the directions of the dungeons. 

I reached just in time. 

The most amazing part of the classes today was that I had my first flying class! Madam Hooch, who had yellow eyes, sharp, like an eagle, told us to step up to our brooms and say ‘up!’ I did as she asked. The broom immediately flew into my hand. I looked around, but not that many people had accomplished the same, just me, Harry, and Draco Malfoy. 

We were then told to hover off the ground and touch back down at the count of three, but Neville, started at two, and his broom hovered way too high and then lost control of it and fell onto the ground, on his wrist. I ran up to him to check if he was okay or not. I realized he had broken it, when Madam Hooch came over I voiced my thoughts. 

She told us to stay on the ground or we would be expelled before we could say ‘Quidditch’ 

“Look!” said Malfoy, darting forward and snatching something off the floor. “It’s that stupid thing Longbottom’s gran sent him” He held up a glass ball. “Give it here Malfoy!” I said. 

“I think I’ll leave it somewhere for Longbottom to collect - how about - up a tree?” Malfoy smiled nastily. “You hand that thing over to me now!” I said fiercely. Malfoy lept onto his broomstick, hovering level with the topmost branches of an oak. 

“Come and get it, Potter!” He called down to me. I soared through the air, my heart beating fast as I did not want to be zapped out of the air by Zeus. Air blew my pony behind and my robes whipped behind me. I was a natural at flying! Wow! This is amazing! I felt a rush of adrenalin. I looked down and saw that Harry was speeding behind me and the others were cheering for him and whooping. 

I turned sharply and looked Malfoy in the eye. I heard Harry behind me. “Give it here or I’ll knock you off your broom!” he said. “Catch it if you can then!” Malfoy called. He threw the glass ball high into the air and streaked back towards the ground. 

I bent forward and my broomstick zoomed forward as I went to catch the glass ball. Harry reached there first and caught it, but he was almost off balance so he threw it towards me and I reached forward and caught it with one hand. “HARRY, MILLIE POTTER!” Professor McGonagall was running towards us as we touched down onto the ground. 

She gave me a disapproving look, I looked down ashamed. “Potters, follow me,” she said and she took off into the castle. I followed behind her, my head stayed down. She took us to the dungeons and straight to Professor Snape’s office. She knocked on his door and he said to come in. 

Minnie told us to wait outside and went in. She was inside for about 5 minutes while Harry tried to talk to me. “Hey, look, I’m really sorry about the other day,” he said. I looked at him incredulously “Sorry? Really Harry? In potions even though I knew the answer to the question Snape was asking, I didn’t answer because siblings, especially twins are supposed to stick together. I have backed you up in so many situations, gotten you out of trouble, by getting myself into it countless times, and you couldn't stand up for me this once?!” I took a deep breath, and Harry looked really guilty now. “Look, I guess we can stop ignoring each other, and go back to normal, but we will never be able to talk to each other properly because of our houses,” I say. He nodded. “I missed you!” I say and hug him. He hugs me back. “Oh! I forgot to tell you! Actually I have sooooooo many things to tell you!” I say getting excited. 

“I can’t tell you now, just in case someone's listening, but we’ll have to meet up later, because these are very important things, what I have to tell you,” I say as Professor McGonagall comes out of the office with a fuming Snape. She shoots me an apologizing look and takes Harry to wherever. Right now I need to deal with the fuming Snape who is about to snap (A/N: Okay, I’ll stop now...NOT!! HA!).

I turned to him. “I’m really sorry Professor, it was Malfoy who had started - ” I was cut off by Snape saying “I don’t want to listen to any of your pathetic excuses! 20 points will be taken off Slytherin and you have earned yourself detention on Saturday!” He stormed off into his office. I was confused as to why he would be so mad. 

I still had one hour till I had to meet Amelia at the Black Lake so I decided to write the letter to Dumbledore. I went back to my room and took out a piece of parchment and a quill and wrote a few different drafts until I finally decided on one:

Thank you.

M.Potter

I knew he would understand that I was thanking him for everything. I also decided to write Harry a quick letter telling him to meet me over the weekend so I could tell him about everything. I wrote:

Meet me at the Black Lake, Saturday at 4 pm exact. Don’t be late, this is important. 

M.Potter

I changed my clothes (with jeans) into something a little comfier. 

I still had about 30 minutes to go so I was contemplating about doing my homework when I realized I would be showing Amelia my room, so I cleaned up a little. I also imagined another room when I could keep all of my demi-god things. I wasn’t going to tell Amelia everything about my life, just the part about where I got my own room. After I was done setting up the room a little I headed out to the Owlery to owl the letters. 

After I dropped off the letters there, I headed down to the Black Lake where I would be meeting Amelia. When she came I told her to follow me. I took her to my room and told her all about how I could change my room just by thinking about it. 

“Wow! Your room is amazing! And you can change it as you wish?! That's so cool!” Amelia exclaimed. “Can you change the walls green?” she asked. “Sure,” I said, closing my eyes and imagining my walls as green. I opened them, and you can guess what I saw. Aelia was squealing with excitement. 

She asked me to change a few more things, which I did, but at the end changed back to normal. After that, we just sat on the couch and talked about random things, like complaining about teachers, talking about subjects, and we couldn't avoid the topic of boys because we were girls, but the thought almost made me gag. When she mentioned that, I groaned. 

“What?” she asked laughing. “I am a complete tomboy! I hate dresses, makeup, and everything!” I said. “How can you hate makeup?! And dresses?!” she asked. “Oh, I can! Don’t believe me? Wait here.” I said as I went to my cupboard to get my skorts to show her. I found one and walked back and sat on the couch. I handed her my skort. “Umm...Why did you give me your skirt?” she asked, eyeing it carefully. 

“It’s a skort, not a skirt,” I say, and she looks confused. “Look, the insides are shorts, that is how much I hate skirts and dresses! I even changed the school uniform!” I say laughing, and showing her what I meant. She stared at it in shock at first then burst out laughing with me. 

We talked for a little while more before we decided it was time to go to bed as we had classes tomorrow. We decided to meet up every Saturday just to talk, maybe do homework together, sometimes in my room, sometimes in the library, depending on what we were doing. 

I wanted to sleep, but I also wanted to do my prank as soon as I could, so I took off from my room, blending into the shadows so I wouldn’t get caught. 

I managed to find the kitchens after about 1 hour of looking since I was hungry. I entered the kitchens to be greeted by Adrey again. “Hello, Miss Potter! What can Adrey get for you today?” she asked. “Oh, Adrey, I told you to call me Millie, didn’t I? For today I would like to - ” I was cut off by the painting open again. I turned around to see the Weasley twins and Lee come in. 

I glared at them and was about to go out, thinking I’d survive without eating, but they stopped me by standing in front of the exit. “What?” I snapped. 

“We wanted to apologize,” George said. And yes, I figured out who was who. “Why should I accept it?” I ask. “Because we truly are sorry, and we shouldn't have judged you just because you were sorted into Slytherin...” Fred said this time. “Look, Millie, we’re really sorry,” Lee said. I tried glaring at them, but I couldn’t for long, looking at their cute, sad faces. I eventually broke into a smile and went to hug them. 

We shared a group hug for a while before I remembered what I was here for. “What are you guys doing here?” I asked them. “Oh, we came for a midnight snack, we couldn't sleep,” Fred said. “What about you?” Lee asked. “Same,” I said.

I asked Adrey for some snacks and the rest did the same too. We took our food and headed back to our dorms. 

I went back to my room and without even touching my food crashed on the bed and slept off. I really need to change my clothes before I sleep at night. But what can I do? The day after classes and everything leaves me so tired!


	10. My guilty oleasure - prank ;)

I again woke up to the Giant squid in front of my face. Does it really like me that much? Oh! It must be Poesiedon sending it after me. I checked my clock and it was 6 in the morning. My stomach rumbled and with a start, I realized that I hadn’t eaten any dinner last night! What is happening to me? 

I saw the tray of food I had gotten from the kitchens last night and scarfed it down after I got ready. By the time I was done it was like 6:30, so I took my homework to the library. I know I went to the Black Lake yesterday, but I wanted a change of scenery, so I went to the library. 

I finished my work by 8 and headed for breakfast. At breakfast, I was called over to the Gryffindor table by the twins and Lee. I walked over to them. “Anyone got a problem with me sitting on this table? Yeah? Well deal with it ‘cause I ain’t moving from here!” I called to the rest of the table. 

I sat down next to Lee across from Fred and George. “Hey, guys! What’s up?” I say piling my plate with food. “Oh, nothing, really,” Fred said. I looked up from my food, my mouth full of eggs, and saw that they all had mischievous smiles on their faces. “Okay, what did you guys do?” I asked, putting my fork down and swallowing my food. 

“Oh, nothing,” George said, dragging out the ‘o’. Just then, as if on cue, there was a burst from the Slytherin table. I looked to see it was covered with a brownish smoke. When it cleared out, there was a horrible smell coming from them. Everyone bent as far as they could away from the Slytherin table. I looked at the twins and Lee. “That was why you called me here didn’t you? As a sorry?” I asked. They were laughing and Fred said “Yes” I smiled at them before I burst out into laughter. 

Everyone stayed as far away from the Slytherins as possible, even the teachers. 

I took out my timetable to see what classes I had for the day. I had DADA (Defense Against the Dark Arts), then HoM (History of Magic) then Herbology, then Charms and then Astronomy at midnight. I headed to DADA with the Gryffindors since I wanted to be as far away from the Slytherins as possible. 

After classes today I decided to quickly finish my homework so I had time to execute the prank. I was done with my homework by around 4. I went to RoR to do some training, as I haven't done anything since Monday! After that, at around 7, I was drenched with sweat and breathing hard. 

I had a quick bath and just relaxed for a while in front of the fire in my room. I must have slept off because I was woken up by my alarm clock and it was 11:30! I had to get ready for my first astronomy class. I dashed into the bathroom to freshen up, I washed my face and changed into my uniform again. 

I ran to the astronomy tower and reached just in time. This class was quite boring, I mean we just stared at the stars and tried to name them. And we had to wake up at midnight for that! Come on! So not fair. 

I went back to my room and changed into my pajamas before I set off to get my prank ready. I headed to the Great Hall and was chanting the spells when I heard footsteps, so I quickly blended into the shadows and waited for someone to come, but no one did. They must have gone away. 

I finished up my prank and went to bed at 3. I woke up at 5 out of excitement. I was tired but I didn’t care. At least I had an excuse saying that I had astronomy last night if someone asks why I was tired. 

I made my way to the Great Hall and sat down on the Slytherin table and fell asleep with my head in my arms. I was shaken awake by Amelia “Hey! You fell asleep on the table! Did you have astronomy last night?” she asked. I nodded and I suddenly perked up remembering the prank. 

I waved my wand under the table and a loud bang came from above. Everyone looked up and all of a sudden some glitter started falling down and got stuck in everyone's food and hair. The glitter as it touched a person, turned their hair the color they hated the most. Including mine, which was Yellow. I was laughing at everyone’s faces. 

Some people joined in, but the teachers were fuming, well, most of them, Dumbledore's beard and hair were bright green and he was smiling. The teachers saw I was laughing and Professor Snape stood up angrily and stomped over to me, his hair being bright red. His head looked like the top of a tomato. I burst out laughing into a new fit of giggles as he comes over to me. I tried to stop laughing so I didn’t get into too much trouble, but it was impossible. 

“Did you do this?!” Professor Snape almost shouted at me pointing at his hair. I nod not trusting myself to speak. “Detention for you for the whole week from Saturday onwards, my office at 8 exactly!” He said before he stormed off. All of the Slytherins were now not only stinking but also had bright colored hair. I could see Harry, the twins, and Lee laughing from the other side of the room. 

I muttered a spell under my breath and my hair turned to my favorite color instead which was aqua. The color was not going out of people's hair for at least a week. I walked over to the Gryffindor table and asked Harry, the twins, and Lee “Hows this?” The twins and Lee’s hair was green, and Harry’s was blue! I burst into laughter again. 

“We didn’t play our prank on you, why would you do this to us?!” Fred almost shouted. “I played it on myself as well dumbo! If I knew how to, you don't think I would have stopped it for myself? Instead, I found a spell to turn it into my favorite color.” I said. “When will this go?” George asked. “In about a week,” I said. “What?” all three of them shouted together. “Yup!” I said hopping off to Harry. 

“You hate blue?! How could you do this to me!?” I asked dramatically, throwing my hand over my heart. Harry rolled his eyes “Ok, now come on, change my hair back” he said. “I can’t, not even for myself! I just changed it into my fav color instead.” I said. 

After everyone had calmed down, I saw Cedric come over to me with his neon pink hair. He looked so stupid I burst into laughter again. “Neon pink? Really?” he asked. I nod laughing. “You hate neon pink?” I ask in between laughs. “It’s so…..ugh!” he said. 

The teachers calmed everyone down and we were sent to our classes. I had double potions, then DADA, and then charms. 

During potions, Snape was in an extremely foul mood, he even took off some points from Slytherin, of course, saying it’s my fault. Some teachers were enjoying it like Professor McGonagall was irritated about her green hair, but she wasn’t complaining. Professor Quirrell’s turban turned light blue since his hair was nowhere to be seen. 

After classes and a lot of glares, the day finally came to an end. Tomorrow was Saturday! I had detention, and I had to meet Harry and Amelia, and finish my homework, so I was quite busy for a weekend. 

I crashed onto the bed. 

I woke up the next day at around 8 today. I guess I was worn out from last to last night. I got ready in my workout clothes and wore a jacket on top of it for breakfast. 

I went and stuffed food into my mouth before I ran up to the RoR. I quickly warmed up and started practicing on dummies. 

Soon it was 3:45 and I ran to get ready to meet Harry. I had a quick bath and changed into my hoodie and jeans before I ran towards the Black Lake. Harry was waiting for me. I ran up to him. “Hey, Harry!” I said. “Hey Mil! So what did you want to tell me?” he asked. “Well, it’s a long story. You got time?” “Sure” “Okay, so Snape told me that I had to go see Professor Dumbledore and I asked him about who wrote my letter and who requested for my books to be that way and he said that’s what Dumbledore would talk to me about. So when I went to his office, he told me the letter and books were him and that he knew about my other life. He also told me that all of the teachers know about it, no one else, so you can’t tell anyone. The Nurse, Madam Pomfrey, has the godly food thing I told you about remember? So I can go to her if I get hurt. Also, he said that no one could find out about my secret so he gave me my own room, which is so cool because I can change it however I like. I’ll show you later. He also showed me a room where I can practice everything, I’m coming from there, I’ll show you that as well, later. Then he dropped the bomb. Professor McGonagall is my godmother.” I said all of this very fast so it took some time for Harry to comprehend this. 

He stared at me for about 2 minutes until he started to speak again. “Wait, so you have your own room, a room to practice, like your own personal gym, and McGonagall is your godmother?” he asked. “Yup, except for the part of the personal gym, because that room can again turn into whatever you like it to,” I say. 

“Wow, now what I have to say sounds kinda insignificant...” he said. “Oh come on! Tell me!” I encourage him. “I got on the Gryffindor Quidditch team,” he said. I was shocked. “I told you it seemed like nothing compared to what happened to you.” “No, Harry! This is amazing! Did you know dad was amazing at Quidditch?! How did this happen though?” I asked. “Well, when McGonagall took me after she dropped you off with Snape,” he said. 

Wait so I get punished and Harry gets put on the team?! How is that even fair?! Wait. I shouldn’t think like this, something happened to my brother for which he is happy, I should be celebrating with him. “That’s amazing!” I say and he looks shocked like he was expecting me to get angry, which I don’t blame because I have a short temper. 

“Okay...so are you going to show me your room?” he asked out of nowhere. “Yeah, follow me!” I said jumping up from my spot. We went back to my room and I did the same thing that I did with Amelia, not the talking part, the changing my room part. After that, I took Harry to the RoR and explained to him this works. He found all of this really cool. 

I also showed him that my pendant could turn into a guitar. 

I finally took him to meet Minnie. I knock on her office door. “Come in” I heard her voice say. “Hey, Minnie!” I chirped as I skipped into her office. “Mil!” she said happily. “And I see you’ve brought your brother!” “Right. Harry meet my godmother, Minnie, Harry” I introduce them to each other even though they already know who the other is. 

“So you told him?” Minnie asked. “Yup!” I say popping the ‘p’ “Also Minnie, I won’t be able to meet today, I’m extra busy...” I say. “I have detention, I have to finish my homework, and I have to meet Amelia, could we do it tomorrow?” I asked. “Sure” she replied nodding. “Ok, so we have to go now, but I’ll see you later Minnie!” I say, heading out of the office, Harry behind me. 

“Wow” was all Harry said. “Yeah, it was a shock for me too...I really have to go now Harry, I have to finish my homework before detention, so I’m free tomorrow” I say. “Okay, bye!” he said, hugging me. “Bye!” I say skipping off after I hug him back. 

I saw Amelia on the way back to my room. “Hey Am!” I said. Weird name, I know, but it was the only one I could come up within two seconds. “Am? What kind of a name is that?” she asked. “Meh, whatever, but are you ready to do some homework?” I asked her. “Oh, sorry, I already did my homework with Jared!” she said excitedly. “Oh! Who is this Jared?” I asked. “He is this really cute guy, and he asked me out on a study date and I said yes.” “Oh wow! Ok, then next weekend let’s meet up just to hang out!” I said. “Sure!” she said before going off to wherever. 

I went back to my room and got started on my homework. I took about one and a half hours to complete my work and finished at 7:30. I cleaned myself and my room up a bit, killing time till it was time for detention. It was 7:50 when I left. I reached Professor Snape’s office and knocked on the door. “Come in” 

I peeked through the door and saw Professor Snape with his bright red hair sitting at a desk in complete black in a completely black office. “Good evening Professor,” I say, trying to be polite. He nods and tells me that I have to clean all of the ingredients shelves and put them back exactly for today, without magic! I did as he asked and he left me about one hour later, saying I’d have to finish the work in tomorrow’s detention. 

I headed back to my room, exhausted, then I realized that I hadn't eaten lunch or dinner and I was starving! I decided to make a stop at the kitchens to get something to eat and then go back to my room. 

I meet Cedric in the kitchens with his neon pink hair. As I see his hair, I burst out into a fit of giggles, and he turns around to see me. He playfully glares at me and starts chasing after me. I was still laughing so I didn’t get enough time to run away, so he caught me and started to tickle me. “Ah! Stop - please - stop” I say in between laughs. He eventually stops after I promise him that I wouldn't laugh at him anymore. 

We talked while the house elves got what we asked for and then bid each other goodnight and went our respective ways. When I reached my room, I wolfed down my food and fell asleep on the couch itself.


	11. Your Naka who now?

I opened my eyes to see...wait, why was there a fire!? I wiped my bleary eyes and saw that it was just my fireplace and I had fallen asleep on the couch. I got up and ready. I have a lot of things to do today as well. Looks like my first weekend at Hogwarts was not going to be free at all. 

Today I had to meet Minnie and detention. Oh, wait! That’s all for today? Wow! I can spend the rest of my time just fooling around or planning another prank then! I got dressed and headed out towards Minnie’s office. 

When I reached, I knocked and went in. Minnie was waiting for me with a tray with teacups and tea and some breakfast. She smiled and motioned for me to come in and sit down. We talked about random things like how school was and she asked me how the Dursleys treated us and told me she had suspicions that they would treat us badly. We also talked about my other life and how her prank reminded me of my fathers. Minnie was grading papers while we were talking, she is an amazing multitasker.

She also told me stories about my parents and how my mom hated my dad because he was asking her out everyday and she used to reject him by calling him a ‘toe-rag’. I laughed at that. When it was around 12:00 we went our own ways deciding to meet every Sunday like this just to talk. 

I have detention, but that's not for another 8 hours so I went to the Black Lake to relax. I pulled out my sketch pad and pencil from my trunk. You're wondering how since I was at the Black Lake? Well, I learned a neat little trick which is I can pull anything out of the shadows if they were left in shadows and they were mine. So I leaned on the tree and started to draw the scenery I saw. 

I was finishing it up when I saw Cedric walking over to me. “Hey!” he said. “Hey!” I replied, trying to keep in my laughs about his hair. “I was going to practice Quidditch, and my friends are a little busy so I was wondering if you wanted to come with?” he asked. “Sure! I got nothing better to do really, so… but I don’t have a broom” I said. “Oh, no worries, you can use one of the school brooms.” I got up and followed him towards the Quidditch Pitch which was surprisingly empty. I thought it’d be completely busy since it was a weekend. 

Cedric got me a broom and we were off, darting from one side of the pitch to the other side, the wind blowing through our hair, we played catch for a while and then Cedric explained how to play Quidditch. We were about to play some more, but the Gryffindors came to practice and kicked me off the pitch along with Cedric. I saw Harry and nodded at him with a smile.

“I see you’ve made up with your brother!” Cedric said as we made our way back to the Great Hall for lunch. “Yup, he apologized to me a few days ago...” “Cool...” “I’m really hungry!” I said. “What about you?” “Me? I’m fine, but it is lunchtime” as if on cue his stomach grumbled. I laughed at the timing. “Did you like plan that or something? It was like right on time!” I say, still laughing when we reach the Great Hall. 

“Wanna sit with me at the Hufflepuff table?” “Sure!” I got some weird looks as I sat down at Cedric’s table. I stuffed my mouth with the amazing food and I heard Cedric laugh from beside me. “Wah?” I ask with my mouth full. “Nothing, you look so hungry, you're eating like a buffalo,” he said laughing. I smile at him, my mouth closing with difficulty. 

He started laughing again, making me burst out into laughter, I managed to keep the food in my mouth and also managed to not let it get stuck in my throat. I swallowed the food and after eating and making many funny and silly faces at each other, I headed back to my room to rest. 

I slept for about one hour before I woke up, not being tired anymore, and went up to the Owlery to say hi to Hedwig. When I reached the Owlery, I found Hedwig and went over to pet her. As I pet her, I looked out onto the grounds. 

I roamed around the castle for a while and at 5 I changed into my workout clothes. I warmed up all the way to the RoR and practiced hand-to-hand combat today. I have to practice a lot of different kinds of fighting techniques just in case I would need it. At 7:30 I went for a bath and ran towards detention. It’s not like I wanted to, but didn’t have a choice. I didn’t want to be late and get in trouble again. 

I again cleaned the shelves full of ingredients, trying not to get in more trouble by laughing at Snape’s hair. After I was done, it was 9, and I decided to just roam around the castle for a while since I wasn’t tired, I could use my powers to hide if I needed to. 

I roamed and eventually reached the Astronomy tower where I sat down and admired the night sky, and then when I looked on to the grounds I saw a huge mob of people? Walking out of the forest. I looked closer and saw they were monsters. I quickly shadow traveled myself down there. 

When I appeared in front of the mob, I saw another demi-god fighting them. And he was losing, bad. I jumped in, slashed threw my daggers, dodged. I let my body take over. 

I let out a scream as a monster came from behind me and stabbed the back of my calf, but I continued fighting. When we were done, we were covered with monster dust and sweat. My calf was throbbing and my head was spinning. I was so tired, I had to sit down on the ground for a second before I could speak. “Who are you?” I asked the guy. 

“I’m Ethan, Ethan Nakamura,” he said. “Millie, Millie Potter” I replied. “I need to take you to Dumbledore” I muttered to myself. “What?” he asked as he didn’t hear me properly. “Nothing, help me up, please,” I said as I tried to get up. He helped me up and I limped all the way back to the Entrance. “You didn’t get hurt anywhere did you?” I asked him. “No, I’m fine, just tired is all,” he replied. 

“Ok, follow me,” I said as I limped towards the hospital wing. When I reached, they knocked on the door and it took about a minute till Madam Pomfrey opened the doors. I muttered a hi before I showed her my leg. 

I also explained that we would need Professor Dumbledore as I subtly pointed towards Ethan who was standing behind me. Madam Pomfrey nodded and helped me to a bed and told Ethan to go and sit on the next one. After she fixed me up, she gave me ambrosia and nectar which I happily consumed. 

I was contemplating whether or not we should give some to Ethan, I mean, he looks like a demi-god, but it could also have been a mortal or a wizard who found out about this stuff and followed him. It could also just be a mob of monsters that were looking for me but came across him instead, but no, that wouldn’t work, he had a sword. 

While I was deep in my thoughts, Madam Pomfrey had gone to get Dumbledore. “Hey!” Ethan asked. “Yeah?” “What is this place exactly?” he looked curious. “This is Hogwarts, a type of school” I replied. I didn't tell him the whole truth because I didn’t know whether he was mortal or a wizard. “Wow! A school that’s as big as a castle!” he said admiringly. “Do you not get lost here?” he asked. 

“Believe me, I do,” I replied laughing, remembering the time I had to ask the ghosts for directions. Huh, that was not too long ago. Just then, Professor McGonagall came running in. “Miliel! Millie! Are you fine! Poppy told me you got hurt!” she was saying. “Minnie! I’m fine! I was just fighting off the monsters and one managed to stab me, that’s it” I say trying to calm her down a bit. 

“Millie Potter, if you ever get hurt like that again and scare me! I don’t know what I’ll do!” she said angrily. “I’m sorry, but Ethan was in trouble and I had to go help him out!” I said. She looked at Ethan as if just realizing that he was there. 

“Fine, but just be careful next time!” she said. “I got so scared,” she added softly. “I’m sorry,” I say looking down. Professor Dumbledore came striding into the hospital wing. “Miss Potter! What happened?” He asked. 

“Well, I was coming back from detention, when I saw the mob of monsters outside on the grounds, so I went to fight them, and then I saw that Ethan was there,” I said pointing to Ethan. He looked at Ethan and then back at me. “Sir, can I talk to you, alone?” I asked him. 

“Yes, please follow me,” he said and he helped me out of the hospital wing. Once we were out “Professor, I think he is a demi-god, but he doesn’t know it yet, will you be able to transfer him to camp?” I asked. “Yes Miss Potter, but he is a wizard too, like yourself here” he replied. “How can you be sure of that?” “Because he wouldn’t be able to enter the Hogwarts grounds if he wasn’t a wizard.” 

“So he’ll have to stay the year here right?” I asked. “Yes and the summers at camp, will you be able to go to camp and tell Chiron about him.” I took a sharp intake of breath before answering “I will not go back to that camp Professor, I’m sorry” I said. “It’s alright, I understand, but he will need to be taken to camp first before he can stay here” he mumbled that part to himself. 

We went back into the hospital wing to see Madam Pomfrey fussing over Ethan, and he had an annoyed look on his face that made me laugh, catching their attention. 

“Your - face!” I managed through my laughs. “Miss Potter, you will have to rest here for the night.” “Oh, come on! I’m perfectly fine see!” I say trying to walk but almost falling down if Ethan hadn’t caught me. I grumbled a thank you under my breath, not feeling very happy. “Come on! Onto the bed!” Madam Pomfrey said. I was about to complain but Minnie shushed me off. “No, you are hurt and you are going to stay here for the night!” she said before going out of the hospital wing. 

“But Poppy!” I complained and heard Dumbledore chuckle. “Miss Potter, you will have to stay here for the night, Mr. Nakamura too will have to rest here tonight before we tell him about it.” was the last thing Dumbledore said before he left. 

“Poppy please let me go!?!?” I said pouting and giving her my puppy dog eyes. “You know your father used to call me Poppy too? But those puppy dog eyes won’t work on me. You need your rest and if you go back to your room you will not rest enough.” she said before switching off the lights and going back into her office. 

She left me in the dark with Ethan. But I wasn’t sleepy just yet because of the adrenaline coursing through my veins so I decided to see if Ethan was awake, but he beat me to it. “Millie?” he asked. “You awake?” “Yup,” I say, getting comfy in my bed. If I’m going to stay the night, I might as well get comfortable. 

We talked for a while asking each other questions like ‘why is your hair blue?’ then eventually we fell asleep. I woke up to a white blinding light and saw white walls. ‘Wait this isn’t my room’ was the first thought I had. Then I remembered the events of last night. 

“Ms. Potter! You’re awake! Here is some ambrosia if your leg is still hurting you.” she said, handing me a block of it. “You can leave now if you like, but Dumbledore said he wanted to meet you after breakfast,” she said. “What is the time?” I asked her groggily. “It’s 7” That woke me up. I hopped out of bed and said “Thanks Poppy!” as I ran out of the hospital room. 

I ran back to my room and freshened up and changed into my robes. I went down for breakfast and saw Ethan walk in with Dumbledore. He spotted me, said something to Dumbledore, and came over, and sat down with me at the Slytherin table. Amelia gave me a questioning look like who is that and I motioned that I would explain later. 

I and Ethan talked throughout breakfast and I saw many people look at me and Ethan, I again told Harry, Fred, George, Lee, and Cedric that I would tell them about it later. 

After stuffing myself and Ethan making fun of me for the same, we went to Dumbledore’s office and waited for him. Then, we explained to him about him being a demi-wizard and that I’m the same too, well, a witch. We told him about camp and Hogwarts and he took the news really well. Dumbledore said that he sent a letter ahead that they would be coming with a new camper. 

After that, I went back to my classes and Dumbledore took Ethan to camp saying he would come back here in about a week. I was a little sad because we really connected during our few hours together. He was quite a good friend, but I’ll be seeing him in a few days. 

The whole week I was nervous for Ethan and excited for him to come back. Ethan would be sorted in Dumbledore's office before dinner the night he comes back. I explained to Harry everything, but to the others, I just told them that he wandered into the school grounds by mistake and that he did not have any parents and that he would be attending Hogwarts with us soon. 

Harry was really worried for me because I got hurt, and my leg was a pain, not in the sense that it was hurting me, but in the sense that it was irritating me because it was restricting me from doing certain things. It all got better by Friday and every day from then on, I was playing Quidditch with Cedric, sometimes Harry. 

I was playing Quidditch with Cedric on Sunday evening when Professor Snape came and told me to follow him. I did a loop in the air and sped towards the ground calling a bye to Cedric behind me. 

Snape told me to follow him and he took me to Dumbledore’s office. I was confused at first, then I realized Ethan was coming back today! I wonder which house he got sorted into. “Professor! Which house did Ethan get sorted into?!” I asked him excitedly on the way to Dumbledore’s office. 

“Mr. Nakamura has not gotten sorted yet, he wanted you to be there with him when he got sorted,” he replied as we reached. I was almost jumping up and down. If he was in Slytherin with me we would be in the same classes! If he wasn’t he would probably get his own room like me, maybe we could have our own common room connected for like demi-wizards and witches! How cool would that be! 

I entered Professor Dumbledore’s office and saw Ethan sitting on a chair waiting for me. I went in and hugged him, he hugged me back happily. “So, are you ready to get sorted?” I asked Ethan. He shook his head and I laughed. 

Then I realized that Snape was still there with us. “You know the Slytherin team could use a chaser,” Dumbledore said out of nowhere. I looked at him questioningly. But Snape seemed to understand as he started fuming and left the room abruptly swishing his cloak behind him. 

“Well, then! Let’s get your sorted and to dinner yes Mr.Nakamura?” Dumbledore said. “Yeah….” Ethan said nervously. “Hey! It’ll be fine” I reassured him. 

Dumbledore put the hat on his head and it covered his eyes. It wasn’t there too long, just about 1 minute and then the hat said “Better be….”


	12. Cerberus?

“SLYTHERIN!” The hat shouted. I now was really jumping up and down. As the hat was removed from his head I practically jumped onto him almost making both of us fall over. “We’re in the same house!” I shouted. 

“We have the same classes, at the same time, and we both will have a room, one for me and one for you because no one else can know about our secret!” I said all of this very fast. I looked at Dumbledore to see he was chuckling. I smiled sheepishly. When I get excited I tend to talk a lot. 

I and Dumbledore showed Ethan his room and we decided a time to practice every day in the RoR and I sat talking with him late into the night. I fell asleep on the couch I convinced him to put in his room. 

The next day I woke up and got ready and went to the Great Hall for breakfast where introduced Ethan to my friends and my brother. The rest of the day during classes I and Ethan just talked the whole time, got in trouble, but we didn’t care. 

At the end of the day during dinner, Snape came up to me and asked me to talk to him outside. “Yes, Professor?” I asked. “I have spoken to Professor Dumbledore and he has agreed to let you join the Slytherin Quidditch team,” he said reluctantly. “What? Are you Serious?” I asked. He scrunched up his nose when I said serious. “Yes, Ms. Potter” he spat. “Mr. Flint will be waiting for you on the pitch tomorrow at 7, your position will be a Chaser. But Potter, you listen to me. You put one toe, one little toe out of line, and you're off the team!” was the last thing he said before he took off. 

What just happened here!?!? Did I just get put on the Quidditch team?! Merlin’s beard! Yes, I have started swearing like that now. I adapt easily, what can I say?

But the QUIDDITCH TEAM!?!?!? How did this happen? I ran back into the Great Hall and jumped into my seat next to Ethan. “Guess what?!?!” I almost screamed. “What?” he asked, amusedly at my excitement all of a sudden. “I got put on the Quidditch team! Can you believe that?!” I squealed with excitement. “Are you serious?!” he asked, shocked. I nodded my head up and down very fast. By now he also started catching onto my vibe. 

I ran over to the Gryffindor table to tell Harry, the twins, and Lee. Luckily for me, they were all sitting together. “Guess what guys!? I got put on the Slytherin Quidditch team!” I squealed. “What? Really?” Harry asked. “Yup!” “That’s so cool, except for the fact that me, George and Harry will be against you,” Fred said. “Wait, I didn’t really think about that...eh! What can you do? Let’s just enjoy it!” I said. 

“Having a last meal, Potter?” Malfoy, who had come over to the Gryffindor table had asked me. “Yeah, right! You know you seem a lot braver when you’ve got your little friends with you” I retort. 

“I’d take you on any time on my own” Malfoy said. “Tonight if you want. Wizard’s duel. Wands only - no contact.” “No contact? What? Are you scared of me?” I said. “What’s the matter? Never heard of a wizard’s duel before, I suppose?” 

“Of course she has” Ron stepped up. Whoa. Where did he come from? He was the only one I hadn’t made up with yet. Maybe this was his way of saying sorry. “I’m her second, Harry’s her third” (A/N: I don’t think there is a third, but since this is my fanfic, there’s gonna be one) Ron continued. 

“Crabbe” Malfoy replied. “Midnight all right? We’ll meet you in the trophy room, that’s always unlocked” and with that, he strode off. “So, are we back to being friends now?” I asked Ron. “Yeah, I’m sorry, I shouldn’t have said all of that stuff before” he apologized. “It’s fine,” I say going over to hug him.

I saw Cedric look over at me curiously and I told him I’d tell him about it later. We met in the kitchens later that night. It sort of became a meeting spot for us whenever we weren’t on the Quidditch pitch. “What were you so excited about?” he asked, later that day. “Oh, nothing, just the fact that I got put on the SLYTHERIN QUIDDITCH TEAM!!!!!!!!!” I shouted. “What?! Wow!!! That’s amazing! Except for the fact that we’ll be against each other!” he said. “Why is it that I am always against my friends? First Harry, Fred, and George, now you?!” 

“Wow! Unlucky you!” he said. “But, what happened with Malfoy?” “Oh, nothing! He was just trying to make fun of me, asking if I got expelled, which I’m actually quite surprised I haven’t yet,” I rambled on, lying smoothly. Don’t get me wrong, Cedric is an amazing friend, but he’s kind of like a goody two shoes. 

After talking to Cedric for about an hour about random things, it was around 11, so I decided to call it a day, well, in front of Cedric at least. I went back to my room and changed into something comfy. I tied my hair into a pony and made my way towards the Gryffindor common room entrance. 

Ok, so my room can apparently make corridors to wherever I wanted, so of course, I went outside the common room to meet Harry and Ron. You ask why I don’t go directly into the common rooms? Well, I want that to be an element of surprise when I prank or something. I decided not to disturb Ethan, not knowing if he was awake or not. 

I waited outside blending into the shadows in case I got caught. I saw Harry, Ron and…Hermione?!?! Why did they bring her?! I quickly came out of the shadows. “Hey, guys!” I said cheerily. They all jumped about a foot in the air “Bloody Hell Mil! It looked like you just came out of the shadows or something!” Ron said, clutching his chest. “What are you talking about? I was standing here the whole time! You must not have seen me properly” I said as I tried not to laugh at the irony of Ron’s sentences. 

“Don’t you care about Gryffindor, do you only care about yourselves, I don’t want Slytherin to win the House Cup and you’ll lose all the points I got from Professor McGonagall for knowing about Switching Spells,” Hermione said. “Hello? Slytherin standing right here!” I say waving my hands above my head. Ron ignored me and said “Go away”

“Alright, but I warned you, you just remember what I said when you’re on the train home tomorrow, you’re so - ” Hermione cut herself off. She had turned around to the portrait that was supposed to let them into the Gryffindor Common Room, but The Fat Lady was gone. 

“Okay, let’s go,” I said quietly, shushing them. “What?!” Hermione’s shrill voice cut through the silence. “I’m not coming with you,” she said disgustedly. “Yeah, well your other option is to wait here till someone comes back and get into trouble” I snapped at her. She huffed in frustration. 

“Shut up, both of you!” Harry said sharply. “I heard something” There was a sort of snuffling. “Mrs. Norris?” Ron breathed. We found out it was just Neville. He was curled up on the floor, asleep, but he jerked awake suddenly as we came near. “Thank goddess you found me! I’ve been out here for hours. I couldn’t remember the new password to get into bed” he said. 

“Keep your voice down, Neville. The password’s ‘pig snout’ but it won’t help you now, the Fat Lady’s gone off somewhere” Hermione said. “How’s your arm?” I asked him, trying to be polite. Honestly, I thought Harry was supposed to be the polite one!

“Fine” Neville replied. “Madam Pomfrey mended it in about a minute” “Well, she can really work miracles, can’t she?” I muttered. “Look, Neville, we have to go somewhere, we’ll see you - ” “Don’t leave me!” Neville said, cutting me off. “I don’t want to stay here alone, the Bloody Baron’s been past twice already,”

Ron looked at his watch and then glared at Hermione and Neville. “If either of you gets us caught, I’ll never rest until I’ve learned that the Curse of the Bogies Quirrell told us about and used it on you” “If you guys seriously don’t shut up, you're going to get us caught, and you don’t want to know what I’m going to do if that happens,” I said threateningly. That shut them both up, for a while at least. 

We walked in silence till we reached the trophy room, but Malfoy and Crabbe weren’t there yet. We waited there for a while and I walked around of course before Ron said. “He’s late, maybe he’s chickened out” Then a noise in the next room made us jump. My hand instinctively went up to my pendant, but I didn’t take it out just yet. 

My wand was pulled out and then I heard someone speak, and it wasn’t Malfoy. “Sniff around, my sweet, they might be lurking in a corner” With a start I realized it was Filch talking to Mrs. Norris. I silently motioned the others to follow me and I ran in the opposite direction of where the voice was coming from. 

That idiot Malfoy had set us up. That was his plan from the start. I wanted to go punch him, but for now, I had to find a way to get everyone safe and away from Filch. If it was just me, I could have just shadow traveled away. “They’re in here somewhere,” Filch muttered. “Probably hiding”

I was walking ahead of everyone so I couldn’t see exactly what happened, but suddenly there was a loud clang and my head snapped back, my eyes wide open and I saw a suit of armor fallen down. Now our hiding spot was compromised for sure. “RUN!” Harry and I screamed at the same time. All five of us sprinted. 

Whenever people fell or anything, I helped them up since I could catch up with the rest easily. After running through many random corridors, we stopped, and I listened carefully in case I heard Filch’s footsteps or anything. I didn’t so I said “I think we’ve lost him” Everyone was panting and looking at me. “How come you aren’t panting like us?” Ron asked. 

“Oh, I just have very good stamina,” I said making up an excuse and then looking around to see if I could find out where we were. “I told you” Hermione gasped. “We’ve got to get back to the Gryffindor Tower,” Ron said, ignoring Hermione’s comment. 

While we made our way back to the Gryffindor Tower, so I could keep a watch on them, Peeves came out of a classroom and gave a squeal of delight. “Wandering around at midnight, ickle firsties? Tut, tut, tut. Naughty, naughty, you’ll get caughty” he said. “Peeves, come on, please, let us go, don’t tell anyone and I’ll help you with - ” “a prank?” he asked excitedly, cutting me off. “Yeah,” I said, nodding vigorously. 

We started to make our way down the corridor again and when we were out of sight of Peeves, he started to shout at the top of his lungs. “STUDENTS OUT OF BED! STUDENTS OUT OF BED DOWN THE CHARMS CORRIDOR!” “That little-” I started, but we started running again to not get caught by Filch. 

We found a door at the end of the corridor, but it was locked. “This is it!” Ron moaned. “We’re done for! This is the end!” “Oh, shut up! And move!” I said trying to remember the unlocking spell. I shut my eyes to concentrate, and Hermione muttered “Alohomora” ”Yes! That’s it! Alohomora!” I whisper-shouted. The lock clicked and the door swung open. We entered and quickly shut it behind us and pressed our ears to the door to listen to what Peeves was saying. 

“Which way did they go, Peeves?” Filch had asked. “Quick, tell me” “Say ‘please’” “Don’t mess me about, Peeves, now where did they go?” Filch snarled. “Shan’t say nothing if you don’t say please,” Peeves said in a sing-song voice. “All right - please” “NOTHING! Ha haaa! Told you I wouldn’t say nothing if you didn’t say please! Ha ha! Haaaaaa!” And then I heard Peeves whooshing away. 

So that little traitor did keep his promise. Also, Filch thinks this door is locked, so he won’t check here. I heard something behind me and I turned around to see a three-headed dog. Was it Cerberus? “Cerberus?” I asked him, but he only snarled, confirming that he wasn’t, if he was he would have listened to me. 

I grabbed the door handle and threw it open before I watched as everyone went out and I ran after them, we didn’t stop till we reached the Gryffindor Tower. “Where on earth have you all been?” The Fat Lady, who was back now asked. “Never mind that - pig snout, pig snout” Harry panted. We all scrambled into the common room, nobody noticing that they had let a Slytherin in. 

We all crashed into our armchairs. I observed the common room as it was my first time seeing it. “What do they think they’re doing, keeping a thing like that locked up in a school?” Ron said, breaking the silence. “You don’t use your eyes, any of you do you?” Hermione snapped. 

“Didn’t you see what it was standing on?” “The floor?” Harry suggested stupidly. I rolled my eyes. “I wasn’t looking at its feet, I was too busy with its heads” Harry defended himself. “No, not the floor. It was standing on a trapdoor. It’s obviously guarding something” She then stood up, glaring at all of us. 

“I hope you’re pleased with yourselves. We could all have been killed - or worse expelled. Now, if you don’t mind, I’m going to bed” she said before heading off to god knows where. 

Soon, Neville went up to bed, then Harry and Ron. I wanted to try something, so I waited for them all to go. I tried to channel my room from here to see if I could make a passage there from somewhere else. I opened my eyes to see a door! I opened it and entered and when I looked back, the door was gone, so I headed down the corridor which led me straight to my room. 

As I lay down on my bed, I thought about what Hermione said, something could be hidden in that trapdoor.


	13. First Quidditch practice! Whooo! Let's go!!

My first thought when I woke up was that I had my first Quidditch practice today! I knew they probably won’t treat me well, but I still get to fly! That’s so cool! I just hope Zeus won’t zap me out of the sky. 

I got ready and went for my classes, but today it seemed like the classes were extra long. After classes, I finished up my homework and went to train with Ethan around 5. By 6:30 we were finished and I had a bath and dressed in appropriate clothing for the Quidditch practice. Ethan was coming to watch as support. 

We made our way down the pitch at 6:55. We raced each other and reached by 6:59 exactly. It looked like the whole team was already there waiting for me to be late. Snape must have told the Quidditch team to make my practice as hard as possible because, well let me explain what happened. 

First, Marcus Flint, the captain of the team, made me run about 5 rounds of the whole pitch, to see if my stamina was good. I was already tired and sore from training before, so it was a little tough for me, but I managed. He didn’t make the others do this, saying it was kind of an initiation ceremony, but I knew better. 

Then, he made me fly 10 rounds around the pitch while the others just watched. Later, everyone got onto their brooms and we practiced throwing and catching the Quaffle. Everyone went extra hard on me, but I managed to catch all of them. 

We then practiced throwing the Quaffle into the hoops while the keeper kept. Soon, we added the bludgers and practiced like that for a while. Then we split into two teams and played a match. All of this happened while I was praying to Zeus to not zap me out of the sky. Basically, by the end of the practice, I was exhausted and I headed directly to my room with Ethan ready to crash. 

“Hey! You're not going to sleep without eating are you?” Ethan asked. “At least take a quick bath and eat something!” he exclaimed. “I’m too tired!” I whined. “Okay look, you go have a quick bath and by the time you’re done, I’ll be back with dinner for the both of us,” he said trying to reason with me. “Fine” I sigh, giving in. 

He was a really caring friend. He was kind of like the mother I never had. I felt warm inside knowing that someone cared for me so much. I went and took a quick bath, and by the time I was out, Ethan kept true to his promise and was waiting with food for both of us. I grabbed my plate, pushed the best part of my food into the fire, and stuffed my mouth. 

If I was tired earlier, I was completely drained now. “Mil?” Ethan said. “Mhm?” I asked him, my mouth too stuffed to actually be able to say something. “How did you do that earlier? Like fly so well?” he asked. “I guess it's just pure talent,” I say, overdramatically flipping my hair over my shoulder. 

He laughed before saying “Well, can you teach me?” he asked. “Sure!” I reply. “Also, thanks,” I said. “What for?” he asked, now confused. “You know, for taking care of me, even though I ignore taking care of myself,” I said. “Well, someone has to,” he shrugged. “No, seriously,” I say, trying to show him that I was genuinely thankful to him. He was the one who was always there to take care of me. He was like the mom of the group, although it was just the two of us. 

“I’ll always be there for you,” he said, hugging me from the side. I leaned on him and fell asleep right there. 

I was woken up the next day by Ethan jumping on my bed. I sat up so fast I probably would have hurt myself badly if something was above me. I groaned and fell back on the bed pulling my covers over my face. “Mil! We’re going to be late!” he said. “I don’t wanna get up!” I whined. 

“It’s 8 already, you don’t have much time to get ready!” “Ughhhhhh! Fine!” I said.

I got up and ready for the day and checked my timetable. It’s Wednesday and I have Potions, HoM, double Transfiguration, and then flying. Today is going to be a busy and tiring day. 

I and Ethan headed for breakfast. Once we sat down and started eating, Ethan asked “Mil?” “Yeah?” I said looking at him with my mouth stuffed. “When did you get claimed?” “Oh, one sec,” I said as I swallowed my food. “I got claimed about as soon as I woke up in the infirmary,” I said. I looked at Ethan to see he was very nervous. I suddenly felt bad for him. “Hey! It’s fine! You will get claimed, and if you don’t I will go to Olympus and tear down everything until your parent claims you” I said reassuring him. He laughed at this and I smiled back, happy that I could cheer him up.

“You know, you never really did tell me your story of how you got to camp,” he said thoughtfully. “Oh...” I trailed off. I really didn’t like talking about it, but Ethan was always there for me and he deserved to know about it. “It’s not my best memory, but...” I explained everything that happened that day to the last detail. 

“Oh, my god! I didn’t know, I shouldn’t have asked, I’m sorry” Ethan said after I finished. I was close to tears, but I stopped myself. We headed to class and things were a little awkward after that with me and Ethan. By lunch, we got back to normal. 

Flying class was the one interesting class. I found out that Ethan was a natural. I didn’t even need to give him lessons, but we agreed to practice together every Friday after training. 

After all of our classes were over, I and Ethan finished up our homework and went for training at around 6. We finished around 8, had a bath, and headed for dinner. During dinner, another prank was pulled by the Weasley twins. 

Today for some reason there were candies on the Slytherin table and everyone happily took them, but I didn’t just in case. I looked over to The Weasley twins and Lee and saw them smirking, which only confirmed my suspicion. 

I suggested Ethan against them too. He didn’t listen to me, saying that it was candy. He suffered the consequences later. He was starting to grow fat, everyone on the Slytherin table was. I was laughing so hard I had fallen onto the ground and was shaking. 

Eventually, the teachers managed to calm everyone down and get everyone back to normal. I still couldn’t stop laughing at the image of Ethan fat in my head. Ethan came over and smacked my hand lightly, pouting. This only made me laugh more. 

I walked over to the Gryffindor table to congratulate the twins and Lee. “Great job guys! That was truly an amazing prank!” I complimented. “Yeah, but we wanted to see you fat too!” Lee complained. “Yeah, right! As if I’ll ever fall for your pranks!” I said. 

“You know what? Let’s do a prank war!” George suggested out of nowhere. “That’s a good idea! That way we’ll be able to tell who are the better prankers!” “Yeah, we could ask the whole school to vote to see who’s prank was better!” Fred said. “Yeah, but what will the winner get? It’s got to be a good prize if we’re dragging the whole school into it!” I said.

We all thought for a moment before Lee spoke up. “Oh, how about the person who wins, can make the loser do whatever they want for a whole week?” “That would be hilarious!” I say imagining all kinds of things I could make them do for me. “Okay, so that’s settled then, Ethan will be helping me out since you guys are three and I’m one. We can go full-on out, like whatever secret weapons we have, we can use those,” I said. 

“Okay, so the prank war has officially started!” Lee announced. “Okay, so you guys quickly come up with a name, and I’ll do the same with Ethan and we can announce the prank war to everyone during lunch tomorrow!” I told them before skipping off to Ethan to tell him what just happened. 

I told him everything and asked him to come up with names for our group. I’m not very good at making names, what can I say. By the end, we had decided on…… What? You didn’t actually just expect me to tell you, did you? You're going to have to find out with the rest of the school. 

At lunch the next day, I went over to the Gryffindor table to confirm the details. After that, I stood upon the Gryffindor table and caught the whole school’s attention. “Hello everyone! I’m Millie Potter, but you probably already know that. Something is happening, there are two pranking groups in the school, and this town ain’t big enough for the both of us. So we are going to have a PRANK WAR!!!!! Yeah! The groups will be, me and my friend Ethan here, also known as the CHAOTIC DUO!!!!!!! And Fred and George Weasley and Lee Jordan, also known as the TRIPLE TROUBLEMAKERS!!!! There is one problem though...We can’t choose who wins ourselves because that would be totally unfair, so we have decided to make everyone in this school the judges! Yes, you heard me right, at the end of this week, when the prank war will cease, we will be asking everyone to vote on who they thought played the best pranks. We will be owling the way we will be taking and counting all of the votes. The winner can make the loser do whatever they want for the rest of the week and the loser can’t play any pranks for the rest of the year! Things are about to get extra messy! Thank you, everyone!” I say at last and get back down off the table. 

Everyone starts whispering at once and I grab Ethan and run out of the Great Hall before any teacher could reprimand us. I dragged him to the library despite his protests of wanting to eat. I told him we could eat after classes when we are planning the prank and doing homework. 

Once we reached the library, we sat down on the furthest table and started to shortlist ideas. We had a few ideas written down by the end of lunch. We had also made a sort of a logo that would be left as a mark after the prank is done so that they know it’s the Chaotic Duo. It’s basically our name and on top of it a laughing skull.

After the rest of our classes, I dragged Ethan to the kitchens and we ate out our stomachs. After that, we started with our homework and finished as fast as we could, helping each other in our weaknesses. We were finished with everything within an hour. 

After that, we continued shortlisting ideas and decided to at least one prank a day. For tomorrow we decided to do the prank...well, I’m not telling you just yet! 

Ethan and I finished up the prank by 1 that night, then we went straight to bed, not wanting to wake up late and miss the chance to play it. 

We woke up around 8 and were ready in half an hour. Once we reached the Great Hall, we sat down and waited until 9, when the Great Hall was at its capacity till we started the prank. I waved my wand under the table and something blasted under all five tables and the whole Hall was filled with Brown smoke. 

Once it cleared out…


	14. Prank war!!!

There was nothing different, everything was the same. Well, except for the fact that our logo was floating above everyone's heads. You ask what our prank was? Well, we can’t exactly know if it worked or not until late in the day. 

Everyone was excited to see what had happened but were left disappointed. “I thought it was a joke!” Minnie said. “I can’t believe it! I thought it would all be over after the twins!” Everyone knew which twins she was referring to. A lot of the teachers looked stressed out from cleaning up after us, and I felt a sudden wave of sympathy for them. 

I saw Snape shoot a look at Dumbledore who stood up and said “Ms. Potter! Please come here!” “Yes, sir!” I said as I made my way through all the students towards the teacher's table. “I will be meeting you and Mr. Ethan in my office after classes today,” he said.

Once classes started for the day, our prank was a success!!!!! People weren’t able to say, professor. Instead of that, they would add a gibberish word like sdjfh. It was hilarious, watching the teachers’ faces when they were called adfsgr McGonagall or mfdjso Snape. 

When I and Ethan had gone to meet Dumbledore, he just asked us if the teachers could vote as well for the prank war. I was shocked, but then remembered the kind of guy he was. I said “Whoever calls this school their home, can vote”

The Triple Troublemakers prank was that during dinner, plants grew out of the ground and caught all the Slytherins’ legs and kept them rooted there. Yes, that included me and Ethan. I am sooooooo gonna get them back for this. 

By the time the teachers were done with getting us unrooted from the floor, it was around 9 in the night. We were sent back to our dormitories and I and Ethan stayed up of course to finish planning and executing everything for tomorrow. 

Knowing the other boys would still be awake for their prank, I sent them an owl, asking if I could send in a howler tomorrow to scare everyone, but it would actually give out the information for the voting process. Once that was agreed on, I set up the howler in a way it would arrive tomorrow morning. On one of the letters they had sent us, I saw a little bit of glitter and assumed that had to do with the prank they were going to play tomorrow. 

I better watch out then, because I did not want to be covered in glitter, or have anything to do with glitter. They seemed to be targeting the Slytherins, that would mean, the Slytherins would not vote for them, but they have the rest of the school with them because they hate on the Slytherins. We would need to come up with a plan that would not particularly go against a house because that would mean that house would not vote for us. We would have to do our pranks on the whole school. 

In the end, we finished our prank and just sat and talked. It’s a Saturday tomorrow, what do you expect? Soon, though, we got bored of talking since we already knew each other inside out so we decided to watch a movie. You're thinking how? Wow! I’m actually quite good at guessing what people are thinking, maybe I can make a job out of that or something. Ha, ha, just kidding. Well, we just asked my room to make a T.V. and it did, and now we are watching how to train your dragon. (A/N: I know it was not there in that year, but I couldn’t find any movies I like from that time so that’s what it’s going to be) 

By the end of it, Ethan had fallen asleep so I turned off the T.V. and carried Ethan back to his room and lay him on his bed. After that, I went back to my room, set everything up before sleeping. 

The next morning I woke up and freshened up. It was a saturday! Yes! Although I still have homework and Quidditch practice in the team and with Ethan and the pranks and meeting up with Minnie and probably would get detention from Snape and meeting up with Amelia and about a billion other things to do today. I got up and got ready for the busy, but hopefully excitement-filled day. 

I skipped out of my room to see Ethan coming out too. I smiled at him and we both made our way to the Great Hall, tired from staying up so late at night but excited for today's prank. When we walked into the Great Hall, a lot of whispers broke out among the students, and some even from the teachers. 

I looked over to the Gryffindor table to see the Triple Troublemakers already there. I smirked at them and they copied me as I went to sit down. Just then all the owls flew in and one huge, and believe me when I say huge, I mean huge, howler was thrown in the front of the Great Hall. 

Everyone looked at it anxiously wondering who it was for. Suddenly it burst open and my voice boomed through the whole Hall. The people closest had to cover their ears. It said:

“Hey! Don’t worry, this isn’t for someone who did something wrong. This is for how you will be voting for who you think won the Prank War! Next week, when the Prank War will finish, everyone will be given a chit and you will write which team you think played the better prank. After that, we will collect all the chits, count them, and decide the winner! The teachers can also participate in this if they wish to and that’s it for now! If there is anything else, we will let you know via howlers or another method.” and the letter tore up into many pieces and fell onto the ground. 

I looked around and saw that a few people were still shocked about the howler, but others understood what they had to do. Now, everyone would be judging our pranks so we would have to play extra good ones. One person shouted, “What's your prank for today then?” I laughed and called out to that person. “We aren’t just going to announce it to the entire Great Hall! You will have to wait and see!”

I looked over to the teacher's table to see a fuming Snape. Wow, he’s always mad, isn’t he? “Potter! You will have detention this entire week at 7!” he yelled over the students. “But Professor! We will be completely busy the whole week with the pranks and everything!” I called back to him. I don’t know why I said that. I was probably going to get into double the trouble now. Ugh! Sometimes I can be so stupid. 

“Yeah, well, you're not supposed to be doing this prank war, so hopefully, this will put a stop to it,” he said angrily. “And make that two weeks worth of detention!” My face contorted into one of anger. Apparently Ethan noticed because he grabbed my arm and dragged me out of the Great Hall. I was fuming. How could he give detentions for this! This made people laugh, almost everyone! Well, everyone except him! 

Ethan dragged me to the kitchens where we ate our breakfast after I calmed down a little. We then planned when to play our prank since we didn’t get a chance to during breakfast because of the commotion. 

We went to our classes for the day and played the prank at dinner. Fred, George, and Lee’s prank for today was that at breakfast, a swarm of bees came into the Great Hall and went after a few targeted people. The bees were made of glitter and followed those people around the whole day, one bursting into a flurry of glitter every hour. I have to admit, that was a good prank, we would have one step up our pranks from now on. 

That dinner, after eating, and sacrificing for me and Ethan, Ethan waved his wand and the prank took place. All of a sudden, the ceiling showed that it started raining and then the next, it started pouring inside, like the ceiling had been magicked away. And guess what? It had.

A lot of people were shocked. I knew I would have to make it fun, so I decided to play music. But I couldn’t do it myself as I didn’t have the spell for it so I went over to Dumbledore. I whispered something into his ear and he nodded and waved his wand. Technically that’s not cheating since we could use whatever tools we had, and I knew Dumbledore would do this for me. Suddenly two large speakers, almost the size of the whole Great Hall and it started to play music by the Weird Sisters. 

I didn’t really know them before, but others told me. Everyone danced to the music. All in all, I had to say this was a memorable night and that everyone would be in our favor for tonight. I’m pretty sure everyone except a few people went to sleep with a smile on their faces and would wake up with a cold, but what can I do? I for sure did(not the cold part), but not before planning our next prank. 

The next day, which was Sunday, I woke up extremely tired. I remember the events of last night and woke up and got ready quickly smiling the entire time. I met Ethan outside and we went to the Great Hall. 

Today the prank was randomly everyone's heads started growing huge! They would remain huge for about an hour, they would sometimes be so big that they wouldn’t be able to get through some of the doors. 

The other team's prank was that all the Slytherins eyebrows and hair disappeared. Yes. I looked sooooo stupid! Fred, George, and Harry would never let me forget this. 

The prank on Monday by the Triple Troublemakers was that all the Slytherins could not speak for 12 hours. Yes, that included me. It was irritating as Hades because I talk non-stop. I love talking, one of the only things that helps me express my feelings, it couldn’t be taken away from me! Not the love of my life! Noooooo! Okay, now I’m overreacting. But still, it's not fair! I am going to kill them! 

Today our prank was that each time the teachers tried to say the word homework, their tongue would start growing and stop and shrink back to normal size after 10 minutes by the time class would be over. 

On Tuesday, our prank was that whenever the Slytherins went to say something mean to someone, unfortunately, me and Ethan included, we would instead compliment the person instead. I couldn’t insult Malfoy for a whole day! But don’t worry, I lived through it. 

The others’ prank was that whenever someone tried to open their books, it would transfigure into an animal and start chasing its owner around. It was funny at first, but it got irritating when it started to disturb classes. 

On Wednesday, their prank was that a few people (the Slytherins) thought of all the teachers as some kind of animals. For example, whenever I looked at Professor McGonagall, I saw a cat instead. This lasted for 24 hours. 

Our prank for Wednesday was that we put some potion in the teacher's drinks at breakfast that put them to sleep for the whole day, so everyone was free for the day. Don’t worry, the teachers thought the day happened completely normally and woke up during dinner. It was hilarious the way they were going on like nothing different happened. They were also confused 

Our prank for the last and final day was turning the Triple Troublemakers robes green, and also their hair. Then we had them speak gibberish for the whole day. We also decided to style their hair for the week, ‘cause why not give them a little advice? We spiked their hair so that it was standing up in the most random directions. Then, randomly, in the middle of the day, they would start confessing their love to random people, the funniest was when Fred started confessing his love for Professor Snape who looked like he was ready to murder someone.

Their last prank was that they put love potions in all of the teacher's drinks and when they looked at each other and they were obsessed with that. Some of the teachers were also obsessed with objects like Professor Snape was in love with the chicken in his plate and Professor Quirrell was obsessed with his reflection. Let’s just say the classes for that day were canceled. 

Now, I can’t wait for tomorrow. That’s when we’ll be deciding who wins!

I wasn’t really able to fall asleep that night, so I and Ethan stayed up talking and watching T.V. and stuff. We also found this really good series called Supernatural. We watched the first few episodes and IT WAS AMAZING!!! We loved it, but that’s a story for later. 

Eventually, I fell asleep on the couch and so did Ethan. We both woke up the next morning because of my alarm. We then quickly got ready in my room. What? He had clothes here and I had some clothes in his room as well. Hey! Don’t get any wrong ideas. Nothing happened. We just have a lot of sleepovers. 

So something really special happened today. Ethan got claimed as we were packing our bags. Yeah, he finally got claimed after the long wait! He was so excited. Well, at first he screamed in a really high pitch because he found something floating over his head and then he understood what happened and calmed down and then got really excited. Oh! I was never going to let him forget how he screamed. 

After he got over his shock, we went to the Great Hall. Half to celebrate and half to find out the results of who won. We were so going to have a party later even if we win or lose the prank war. My best friend just got claimed! 

Everyone was excited, we could see that on their faces. I stood upon the Slytherin table, catching everyone's attention. “Okay everyone listen up! Yesterday was the last day of the prank war! I know this is a sad thing, but don’t worry, there will still be pranks being played by one of the groups! The group which will now be decided! Anyone, and by anyone, I mean ANYONE here today, right now can vote! Even the teachers if they want to!” I jumped off the table and walked over to the teacher's table and asked Professor Dumbledore to give everyone chits and quills. And he did so. “Please write down the name of the group you think that won!” I said. 

For a second there was a scribbling of quills. “Okay, now fold it before we collect them!” Once that was done, I asked Professor Dumbledore to separate the chits based on the different teams. Then, he waved his wand and the number of chits showed in numbers. On top of the Triple Troublemakers pile of chits, it was the number 133 and on ours was…


	15. A Troll? Not one break, huh?

The number 137. OH, MY GODS! We won! We actually won against 13-year-olds. We have so much to celebrate! I started jumping up and down with Ethan while a few of the people cheered. I looked over to Fred, George, and Lee, and they were dejected, so I went over to them and hugged each of them. “Okay look guys, the punishment is a little too harsh according to me,” I say. “And, since we won, I think we can tweak the punishment a bit. I say that you still have to do what we say for the week, but, you can still play pranks, but only after a month” Their faces lit up at that and after that, they cheered us on. 

I just got the best idea ever! I ran over to Ethan, with almost everyone congratulating me, and whispered something in his ear. Once I said that his face lit up. I knew everyone would love this so I again stood in front of the teachers' table and caught everyone's attention. This time Ethan stood with me. 

“Thank you everyone for voting for us and helping us win! To celebrate, Ethan and I have decided to hold a party! Right here in the Great Hall at dinner! This party is to celebrate winning among a few other things!” I said glancing at Ethan. “It will be a semi-formal party with food, drinks, and a huge cake!” Ethan said. “So we hope to see you all there if not for us, but just to have a little fun!” I finished. 

I looked at the teachers who looked like they’d given up on controlling us. Dumbledore looked like he was ready to party right now, Minnie like she couldn’t believe what was happening, Snape furious and the others just confused as if they weren’t sure who was running the school now. I burst into laughter looking at their faces. 

People continued to congratulate me and Ethan throughout the whole week. Since this was the week that Fred, George, and Lee were to help us, we took full advantage of it, like making them carry our bags to our classes and helping us plan the party. 

The party was a hit. Some of the teachers also came like Dumbledore, everyone had a blast with loud music. The Great Hall looked different without the four tables there. After that party though, Ethan and I had our own little party. We got snacks and drinks and stuff up to our room and just talked about how excited we were and slept off there. 

Soon though, the excitement of the prank war wore off, and the excitement for Halloween started. Everyone was really excited for the holidays (from classes), the older people who knew what Hogwarts was like on Halloween were sharing their stories with the first-years. 

In Charms class, we were learning how to make things fly. Yeah, I know, so cool right?! I was partnered up with Harry and we talked a lot more than doing anything else. Oops. Not exactly my fault though, I haven’t really gotten that much time to talk to him this past week. I found out that Minnie bought Harry a broomstick! And that too the latest model! How is that even fair? Although that makes sense since she is the head of the Gryffindor house, still, she’s my godmother!

Anyways, Ron and Hermione were partnered up for Charms and they were fighting a lot. Hermione was saying “You’re saying it wrong. It’s Wing-gar-dium Levi-o-sa, make the ‘gar’ nice and long” Ron got irritated and snapped “You do it, then, if you're so clever”

I got it on my first try itself. Hermione rolled up her sleeves and said “Wingardium Leviosa!” Her feather immediately started hovering, mimicking her wand movements. “Oh, well done!” Professor Flitwick cried, “First Miss Potter and now Miss Granger as well! Good job! 5 points to Gryffindor! 5 points to Slytherin!” 

I could see Ron was very mad by the end of the class. I was talking to Hermione about some spells behind Harry and Ron when I heard Ron say “It’s no wonder no one can stand her. She’s a nightmare, honestly!” I gasped angrily, but before I could do anything, Hermione pushed through them and ran off somewhere. This angered me greatly. I knew what it felt like being bullied and having no friends and I wasn’t letting anyone else feel like that on my watch. 

I walked in front of Harry and Ron and said “You idiot! What were you thinking of saying that! No one will be able to stand you soon with that attitude! And Harry! What were you thinking just listening to him?! You know how it feels like to be treated like that, why would you go treating someone else like that! I’m not talking to any of you again until you apologize to her!” and so I stomped off, looking for her. 

She was in the girls’ bathroom and I went to comfort her. “Hey! ‘Mione? You in there?” I asked. She didn’t reply, but I heard sniffles in one of the cubicles. I went and stood outside it. “Hermione, you know that Ron’s just an idiot right? He’s just jealous of you because you're so good at everything! And I’m your friend, and I will always be with you, no matter what. I’ve even stopped talking to Harry and Ron for you!” I say trying to comfort her. 

She opened the cubicle door and stepped out, and I went and engulfed her in a hug. “Thank you Millie!” she said into my T-shirt. I know we aren’t that close, but I will not allow anyone to be treated like that. I stayed with her till dinner, I kinda wanted to go to the Halloween Feast, but I wasn’t going to leave Hermione just like that. By dinner, she was feeling a little better, so we were about to head out of the bathroom when I looked at the door, I saw a huge figure standing there. 

I realized it was a Troll! Not the Greek kind of monster, so I didn’t take out my sword, but I pushed Hermione into one of the cubicles and locked it while I tried to distract the Troll. I jumped up and down, waving my hands above my head and shouting, trying to get the Troll’s attention, but instead, he smashed the cubicles and I heard Hermione scream. Then, Harry and Ron burst into the bathroom. 

I motioned to Harry to think of something while I frantically looked around to find something I could use to fight the Troll without giving away my powers. I found a huge piece of wood that was previously a part of a cubicle door and I threw it with all of my energy at it. He turned to me as Harry ran up and clung onto the Troll’s neck and stuck his wand up his nose. I grimaced at that, but was bought back to my senses when I heard Harry shout “Do something!” 

At that time, I didn’t care about my secret getting out, I just took out my sword and stabbed the Toll in the leg. While he was distracted by that, Ron waved his wand and muttered something and the club that the Troll was carrying, started flying in the air, and then, it fell, right on top of its owner's head, knocking him straight out of consciousness. Once I was done, I saw Ron and Hermione staring at my sword, but I knew they saw it as a sharp stick or something. Harry was pulling his wand out of the Troll’s nose and wiped it off on his pants. “Gross!” I said. 

Suddenly, loud footsteps made all of us look up and saw all the teachers coming in. Oh shit! We must have made such a ruckus! I quickly turned my sword back into the pendant and looked innocently at the teachers hoping to not get in trouble. 

“What on earth were you thinking?” Minnie asked us as Snape bent over the Troll to observe it. “We clearly weren't Professor,” I had muttered, I thought to myself, but everyone heard me and their heads snapped to me. “You’re lucky you weren’t killed! You promised me you would be safer and not go looking for trouble Miss Potter! Why aren’t you in your Dormitory?” she said. “I didn’t!” I protested.

“Please Professor McGonagall, they were looking for me,” Hermione said and I turned to her with wide eyes. “Miss Granger!” “I went looking for the troll because I thought I could deal with it on my own, you know, because I’ve read all about them” my jaw dropped open. Hermione Granger, the perfect student, lying straight in a teacher's face! I couldn’t believe it. 

Soon, we were let off, with I, Harry, and Ron getting 5 points each for our respective houses for as Minnie puts it as, and I quote ‘sheer dumb luck’. We then headed back to the Gryffindor Tower. Yes, me too. The Gryffindors were wary at first, but apparently liked the party I threw and let them come to after the prank war, so they let me as well. It wasn’t exactly a party, but they were having a feast and someone played music, so I guess you can say it was kind of one. 

Everyone was dancing and it was around 10 when people started to go to sleep as we still had school tomorrow. Ron and Hermione had made up and everything was going well. I was about to leave the party and go back to my room when Hermione said it was too late and that if I got caught I would lose points for Slytherin. I almost laughed at that. Note the almost. She said I could sleepover in their dorm since they had an extra bed. 

I couldn’t exactly say no to that, but I also had to get my clothes and talk to Ethan. I decided to show Hermione my room, there was no other way I could think of to get back to my room. So when there was no one in her dorm, I showed her how I could just make a corridor to my room. She was amazed, and I told her she could tell me whenever wanted and we could have a sleepover at mine or her dorm. 

We talked for a while about random stuff before I decided I should get some shut-eye. I went back to my room and saw Ethan waiting for me with an angry expression. I gulped. “Hi!” I said in a high pitched voice. “Where were you?” He asked. “Um...I was in the Gryffindor common room” “And in the morning?” “Okay, fine, Ron said something mean about Hermione, and I know how it feels, so I went to comfort her and soon it was night and the feast had started in the Great Hall and we were about to come, but suddenly a troll comes barging in and I, Harry and Ron fought it and Hermione lied to Minnie and then I went back to the Gryffindor common room where they all accepted me so I stayed a while and partied and I may or may not have told Hermione about my room otherwise she was going to make me stay over there and I wouldn’t even be able to come back now!” I said all of this in one breath. Okay, maybe two, or three...but not more than that!

Ethan was laughing now. “What?” I asked, pouting. “Your - ha - face - hahaha!” he managed out. “You’re really mean you know that!” I say putting my bag down and jumping onto my bed. “Yeah, but seriously, we didn’t get to practice today and you kinda missed Quidditch practice and Flint is pissed. He isn’t going to let you play the first game!” Ethan said, finally calming down. 

“Oh, that’s fine, I had a lot of fun and I basically fought a monster so my practice is done right there!” I said. “Wha- you know what, never mind. We should go to sleep,” he said. “‘Kay. Night!” I called to him as he went back to his room. “Night!” he said. 

I changed into my pajamas and drifted off into a very not dreamless sleep.

I was in a dark cave-like area, it was a dome. I turned on my spot and I saw a woman in armor standing there as if waiting for me. “Hello Millie Potter,” she said. I didn’t reply, I don’t know how she knew my name, but I couldn’t speak for some reason. “I wanted to thank you for saving Ethan, my son,” she said. I found my voice. “Lady Nemesis,” I said gasping and kneeling to her. We really shouldn’t really anger great deities. 

“Rise, Millie Potter,” she said and I stood up. “To thank you for saving my son, I will be giving you a gift, I will not tell you what it is, you will find out soon, but only if you don’t keep looking for it, it will reveal itself. Could you please carry on this message to Ethan for me?” “Yes, my Lady” “Tell him, there will always be people there for him, if he doesn’t shut them out,” she said. “Thank you, my Lady, for everything,” I said and my dream faded away. 

I woke up with a sudden jolt. I looked at my clock and it was 5 in the morning, there was still time, so I decided to go on a walk around the castle. I made my way onto the grounds and walked around for a while, thinking about what Nemesis said. I wondered what new powers I got. I wanted to try them out but remembered that she had said I wouldn’t find out if I kept trying. 

I kept walking and at one point someone ran into me. I looked up to see it was Fred. “Hey!” I said. “What are you doing here?” I asked him. “No time, I’ll tell you later,” he said dragging me with him. He quickly dragged me into an empty corridor and hid us both in the shadows. I understood that he was running from someone so I blended us into the shadows a little, so he wouldn’t notice. We waited for 2 minutes before I heard fast-paced footsteps run past the corridor. 

As soon as Fred let me go, I let the shadows back to normal and looked at him like ‘explain’. “So, George and I were practicing quidditch and while we were coming back, Filch spotted us jumping in the Great Hall with our muddy shoes and started chasing us and that brings us to here,” he said. 

I laughed at him. “You guys are so childish!” He grinned his goofy grin at me. “What’s the time by the way?” he asked me. “I left my room at about 5 and it's been half an hour I think, so 5:30 is my guess,” I told him. “Oh, then I’ve got to go! Have to wash up before class!” he said and took off, probably to the Gryffindor Tower. 

I walked for another hour before I went back to my room. I would have to tell Ethan about my dream, but I’m not too sure how he will react. He might be mad that his mom contacted me first or he could be happy that his mom told me to tell him something. I really hope it’s the second one. I guess I’ll just have to take my chances.


	16. First Quidditch Match!

I stayed awake for the rest of the time and caught up on some homework. When it was around 8, I ran into Ethan's room and jumped on top of him. “Heyyyyyy!!!!!” I shouted in his ear. “Wake up!!!!!”

He jerked awake and punched me in the face. I held my nose and looked at Ethan who said “Mil! You don’t have to scare me to death in my sleep!” he said. He yawned, stretched, and then got out of bed. 

“That was rude!” I said. “Anyways, I’m going to the Great Hall, see you there slowpoke!” I said as I ran out of his room. I heard him shout offended “Hey! At least I’m faster than you!” I walked back towards him. “Oh, so now you're faster than me as well?” I said. I scoffed. “Okay, if you truly think that, race you to the Great Hall!” I said, challenging him. 

We both started running there, I reached first of course, but only because I was wide awake. Once he reached, I looked at him and laughed. He was confused at first until he realized he was still in his pj’s. He ran back to his room to change. “You better sleep with one eye open for the next few nights!” he said on his way out.

I laughed and went to sit at the Slytherin table. I could see people looking at me amusedly, but I was too busy in my own world to care much about that. 

I looked over to the teacher's table and saw Hagrid looking at me. I frowned. He hasn't even tried to talk to me after I got sorted into Slytherin. 

About half an hour later, Ethan came into the Great Hall, fully ready for the day. The day went by pretty quickly, after classes, we went to practice sword fighting. We made a schedule of what techniques to practice on which days of the week. 

After practice, I had to go to Quidditch practice. Since the Quidditch season was starting soon, Flint was keeping practices every day and working us till we fainted. All in all, my days have been exhausting. 

That dinner, after sacrificing and eating, and trying to stay awake, when we were about to leave to go back to our rooms, Hagrid asked me to talk with him for a second. 

When we were alone, “So, hey Hagrid It’s been a while since we last talked,” I said to him. “Abou’ tha’, I’m sorry Millie. I din’ mean ter ignore yeh like tha’” he said. “I’ve just had bad experiences with some Slytherins,” he explained. “It’s fine, Hagrid. It’s just, not all Slytherin are bad. We are humans too. Some may be bad, and we get our reputation from them, but we are different, people always judge us by our houses. We should be seen as people, not as Slytherins, Gryffindors, Huflepuffs, or Ravenclaws, we are our own people” I explained to him. 

“I know, and I realized my mistake, thas’ why I came ter apologize…” he said. I was ready to give him a second chance, so I said “Hagrid, I forgive you” “Also, I never really got ter thank yeh fer killing tha’ monster back there on the way ter Diagon Alley. I could make yeh a cup o’ tea...” he suggested. I would have said “Oh, you don’t need to thank me!” but I knew he was trying to be friendly so instead I said “Sure Hagrid, I’ll come by this Saturday? Maybe after the match?” “See yeh then!” he said and waved as he walked off. 

That night, as I was about to sleep off, I realized I still hadn’t told Ethan about my dream. Seeing as it was only 9, I decided to go and tell him now. I knocked on his door before I lost my determination and found a pathetic excuse to weasel my way out of telling him. I knew he could tell that something was wrong since I never knocked before entering, and nor did anyone else know the location of our rooms. “Come in Mil!” he said knowing it was me. 

“Hey Ethan, I need to talk to you about something...” I said as I entered his room timidly. He was looking in his cupboard for something while I awkwardly stood at the door. He glanced back at me before going to sit on his bed. “Why- What Happened Mil?” he asked. “Um, can I sit?” I asked, pointing at the couch. I don’t know why this was so hard for me to say. He nodded and I sat, he followed me and sat opposite facing me. 

“Okay, last night, your mom came into my dreams and said she gave me a gift or something, but didn’t tell me what it was, she did this as a thanks for saving you that day. She also told me to tell you that there will always be people there for you if you don’t shut them out, and I don’t know what it means, but she just said to, and I hope you're not mad!” I say quickly, blurting it all out. 

Even though we only knew each other for a few months, we had no secrets from each other. We both knew it was going to be a lifelong friendship, so we told each other everything, and we knew each other inside out. 

“Um...why would I be mad?” was his reaction. What was I worried about? Honestly, I just mentally facepalmed. “Because your mom contacted me and not you?” I spoke to him as if he was a ticking time bomb. He laughed “I’m not mad at all Mill. Maybe a little disappointed, but it wasn’t your choice and I could never be mad at you” he said. “Okay, well that’s off my chest,” I said, sighing a sigh of relief. 

After that, we talked about what the message his mom gave meant and about what kind of cool gifts I could have gotten. He was happy for me, and that’s what I love about him, other people would have been jealous, but he was supporting me. 

Day after day passed, and suddenly it was Saturday, the day of the match, and it was nerve-wracking. We were playing against Gryffindor and that included my brother. 

At breakfast, I looked across the Hall to see that Harry was freaking out, and not eating anything. I decided to confront him, but I couldn’t risk people thinking that I wouldn’t play hard against Gryffindor because my brother was there. I made a plan. What is it? See for yourself. 

I walked up to their table, Ethan behind me for support, and to Harry. Fred, George, and Lee were sitting opposite to him. “Hey boys!” I said cheerily. “Hope you're ready to lose!” I teased. “Yeah, we’ll see who’ll lose!” Fred said. “May the best team win!” I said smirking before looking back at my team confidently. 

I then bent down and whispered in Harry’s ear “Good luck, you’ll need it” I patted his shoulder before we left. “I may or may not have betted against Gryffindor, so you guys better win” Ethan quickly whispered in my ear. I laughed at that and told him there was no reason to worry. 

I had to act confident on the outside even though I was scared to death inside. Everyone would be watching us play and judging us. I would have to be careful. 

I looked over to Harry and saw him beaming widely at me and gave me back a thumbs up. In case you were wondering what happened, I slipped a note to Harry while wishing him good luck. In the note, I wrote a few comforting words that I knew would help him. Seeing him happy, gave me a little confidence. 

Soon though, it was time to go to the changing rooms. On the way, I bumped into Ced. He wished me good luck and told me he was cheering for me on the inside even though he was supporting Gryffindor. 

Once I reached the changing rooms, Flint started to give us a speech about winning no matter what. About halfway through it, with me having been zoned out for the past 10 minutes, Amelia came and saved us by saying she wanted to wish us luck. 

After that, she came to me and calmed me down slightly. As we were heading out of the rooms, I could feel a glare on me, when I looked around, I saw it was Flint, I rolled my eyes at him before heading out. 

You must be wondering why I still got to play the match after Flint had said I couldn’t. Well, let’s just say, the substitute, ‘accidentally’ fell down the stairs and broke his hand. I totally didn’t give him a little nudge. He wasn’t hurt too bad though, just had a cast which would come off a few days after the match. If you ask me, I did him a favor. He doesn’t have to write anything anymore, so no tests, no homework for him. Your welcome. Anyways, now you know why Flint was glaring at me. 

As we made our way onto the field, 1/4th of the stands cheered for us, while the rest booed. I caught Hermione’s eye in the crowd and waved at her while she cheered for me. We had become quite close friends after that night. I also was Ron next to her, but I knew there was no way he would cheer for his opposing team, especially Slytherin. I didn’t take it to heart knowing it wasn’t something he had personally against me. Listening to how he talked about it on the train, I knew he was very passionate about it. 

I just realized that I had forgotten to pray to Zeus to not zap me out of the sky. I said a quick little prayer to him hoping that I didn’t alert him if he wasn’t caring about me. 

The captains shook hands. I snorted. More like a competition of who could squeeze the blood out of each other's hands first. 

15 brooms started floating in the air, and as Madam Hooch, the referee, blew the whistle, the balls were released and all the chasers swooped in to get the quaffle. 

Unfortunately, one of Gryffindors Chasers caught the quaffle so all of the Slytherin Chasers were after them. I heard the commentary in the background. “And the Quaffle is taken immediately by Angelina Johnson of Gryffindor - What an excellent Chaser that girl is, and rather attractive too - ” “JORDAN!” I managed a glance at where the voices were coming from and saw Lee Jordan doing the commentary, closely watched by Minnie. 

I wanted to laugh, but I was a little preoccupied at the moment, but don’t worry, I was so gonna make fun of him later for this. 

Still praying, I flew and managed to hit the Quaffle out of Angelina’s hand. Flint caught it and was off to the Gryffindor posts. He threw it, but it was caught by Oliver Wood, the Keeper of the Gryffindor team. I blocked out the cheering and booing, and all of the commentary to focus on the game. 

After a while, Gryffindor had scored some goals, but we were still in the lead with 30 - 50 points out of which I scored 30. I am proud to say, I was playing very well for my first match. By now, it was already 30 minutes into the match. 

Everyone was waiting for the seekers to spot the snitch. Just then, a sudden wall of wind hit me. All of a sudden it started raining. In the middle of November. I’ll give you three guesses as to why this could have happened. 

Walls of wind kept hitting me, but I managed to stay on my broom without flying off. I looked around and saw Harry was hanging on his broom with one hand. Seeing as the Gryffindor keeper was down, Flint was scoring goal on goal not caring about anything else, I went to help Harry. 

As I got closer to him, I saw Fred and George flying in circles below him to catch him in case he fell. I went closer to him and helped him onto my broom. The unfortunate thing was that the wind didn’t stop trying to get me to fall. 

We managed to stay on the broom until Harry’s stopped jerking, once that happened, he hopped onto his own broom, throwing a thanks in my direction before taking off to find the snitch. 

I sighed and started looking for Flint. He was still throwing the quaffle through the hoops. I rolled my eyes. Suddenly, a bludger came out of nowhere and hit me so hard, with the wind, it almost knocked me completely off my broom. Luckily it had only hit my hand. I was about to curse Zeus but, at that moment, “And it looks like Harry Potter has seen the snitch!” I gasped and looked towards him. 

He was indeed going after something at full speed and the Slytherin seeker was after it too. Out of nowhere a bludger came and hit the Slytherin seeker out of the way. I cursed in Greek. There was no chance we would win now, but I still watched Harry, he was my brother and I was proud of him. 

My hand was still throbbing as I watched him reach out, but he missed. Suddenly, he started to nose dive after the snitch, and just as he was about to crash into the ground, he pulled straight, and then he stood on his broom and jumped off it, did a front roll on the ground, and stood up. 

He looked like he was going to puke, and he did, but he spit out the snitch in his hand. I flew down to him as fast as I could and hugged him hard. My hand, I was pretty sure was broken, but I didn’t care. 

Something seemed wrong...It was not very loud. I pulled away from Harry and looked at the stands to see the Slytherin side cheering. I looked at the scoreboard and saw that we had won by 10 points! Flint must have scored enough goals in that free time we had. 

I cheered along with the rest of the team. Ethan came down and hugged me as well. In the stands, I could see Cedric and Hermione cheering for me as well. I also saw Hagrid and I beamed at them.

We had actually won!


	17. Christmas!

I couldn’t feel the pain yet because of the adrenalin, but I could feel my heartbeat in my arm. Pretty soon, the adrenalin wore off and it started to hurt a lot. I was clutching my hand when Ethan noticed and immediately took me to Madam Pomfrey. 

“Madam Pomfrey, Millie’s hurt. I think her hand is broken” I heard Ethan tell Poppy. I was almost blinded by the pain. I could feel the tears forming in my eyes and rolling down my face. 

Madam Pomfrey quickly helped me somewhere private before stuffing something into my mouth. I realized it was ambrosia so I swallowed it as soon as I could. After a few seconds, I started to feel better. 

I don’t know from where she got it, but Poppy got a sling and told me to wear it for a week or so, just in case and as to not raise any suspicion from the other students. If they would ask how it came off so quickly, I would just tell them that I’m a fast healer. 

Once the pain died down, I went back outside and to Harry who was surrounded by the whole Gryffindor house. I saw him looking above everybody’s heads and he finally made eye contact with me. He came towards me with Ron and Hermione behind him. 

He pulled me into a hug before asking “Are you fine?” looking at my hand. “Yeah, it’s fine now, Poppy gave me something to stop the pain,” I told him. “Poppy?” “Yeah, the matron? Madam Pomfrey?” I said. “Oh! Yeah!” he said. I looked at Ron and Hermione behind him and smiled at them as Hermione pulled me into a hug. I smiled at Ron who looked like he was struggling to say something. After Hermione pulled away, she raised an eyebrow at Ron and I frowned. 

“Uh....c- co- congratulations” he finally muttered. I laughed. “That’s what you were going to say?! I get how hard it was for you, so thanks!” I told him. I held my arms open asking for a hug. He grudgingly gave in. We all shared a group hug before I realized I had told Hagrid I’d go to meet him. 

“Hey guys, I have to go!” I said. “Where?” Harry asked. “To Hagrid’s!” I called out to him, already moving away from them. “Can we join?” Hermione asked me. “Sure I guess” I shrugged. I decided to look for Ethan as it would be unfair to go without him. As soon as I found him, I dragged him by the hand, ignoring his protests, and walked towards Hagrid’s hut with Harry, Ron, and Hermione following us. 

When I reached, I knocked on the door. I heard barking from inside before the door opened to reveal Hagrid. I smiled up at him. “Come on in!” He said as he made way for us to enter. Everything was huge inside, on a huge table, there were huge mugs of tea and a huge dog. As I went to pet it, out of nowhere, Ron said “It was Snape” “What was?” I asked. “Hermione and I saw him. He was cursing your broomstick, muttering, he wouldn’t take his eyes off you” he said to Harry. 

“Wait what?” Ethan asked, confused. “Okay, look. I found out something about him” Harry said, sighing. I frowned. “He tried to get past that three-headed dog at Halloween. It bit him. We think he was trying to steal whatever it’s guarding”

“How do you know about Fluffy?” Hagrid asked, shocked. I was a little bit confused, but I got a feeling that I shouldn’t ask right now. “Fluffy?” Ron said, disgusted. “Yeah - he’s mine - bought him off a Greek chappie I met in the pub las’ year - I lent him to Dumbledore to guard the - ”

“Yes?” Harry said eagerly. “Now don’t ask me anymore,” Hagrid said gruffly. “That’s top secret, that is”

I zoned out after that, still petting Hagrid’s dog who was drooling all over my lap. I came back to my senses once we had left Hagrid’s hut. Once we reached the Black Lake, Ethan stepped in front of us and stopped us. “Stop. Explain” he said simply. So we explained everything to him, the encounter with a version of Cerberus, and that he was guarding something. Then, Harry, Ron, and Hermione went on to explain how on the night of Halloween, Snape tried to get through the trapdoor and that ‘Fluffy’ bit him. This was apparently proven when Harry went to get his book back and saw a huge bite mark and that he was limping. They think that whatever the package that Hagrid had gotten from that vault was what was being protected. They also thought that Snape tried to kill Harry as he was jinxing his broom during the match. I raged at that, I was just about ready to kill him. 

“...And Hagrid mentioned someone called Nicholas Flamel that he had something to do with what that thing is guarding” Ron finished. I narrowed my eyes at him. “That thing, as you call it is a living thing and it deserves respect!” I told him. “It almost killed us!” he protested. “Yeah, because we were not supposed to be there, we were specifically warned and Fluffy was just trying to do his job!” I said, stressing on the name Fluffy. I don’t know why but I get very defensive about animals. He scoffed and stormed away. 

I rolled my eyes. “So, what now?” I asked the rest of them. “I guess, researching Nicholas Flamel...” Hermione said. So we spent the next few weeks in the library whenever we had free time. We all had different ways to research. Hermione would make a list of books to get through, while Harry just skimmed through the important looking books, Ron just picked out all of the random books, from magical creatures to potions. I, on the other hand, was a mix of Harry and Hermione, some days, I would take the important looking books, other days I would make a list, Ethan was a mix of Harry and Ron, sometimes the important looking books, sometimes random books. Once he was reading a book on different types of woods so I was doubting whether or not he was really reading. 

It was very hard for Ethan and me to concentrate on English books for so long, so we would take them to our rooms at night and pretend to read through them. We would just skim through one or a maximum of two books a day, while Hermione would do at least 1000. Ok, I’m exaggerating a bit there. 

Soon, it was December and by now my cast had come off and everyone was excited to go back home. Harry and I were definitely not going back to the Dursleys, so when Snape came with the list of students who were staying, I signed up immediately, with a growl at him of course. What?! You think I would be just fine after what he did, or tried to do to Harry? No way! 

Ethan was staying back too, and so were the Weasleys. Oh, we were going to have so much fun! Hermione had to leave though. 

Soon, it was Christmas eve, and Ethan and I stayed up almost all night. Since most of the people had gone home for Christmas, the boys had invited Ethan and me to stay in the Gryffindor common room. We were all camping in the common room. We had gotten snacks and everything, we stayed up playing games like truth or dare. 

Everyone finally fell asleep at 3 in the morning well, everyone except Fred and I. I got up and walked around the common room for a while before Fred called “Mil?” 

I looked into the darkness from where it came. “Fred?” I asked. “Yeah, why aren’t you asleep?” he asked me. “Just couldn’t. You?” “Same,”

We talked for a little while until I got an idea. “Fred, I have an amazing idea!” I told him. We planned all night and finally finished it. We went to sleep at around 5 in the morning. 

I woke up to an Ethan jumping on top of me and a Ron screaming in my ear. Once, everyone was awake, they all ran into their rooms to get their presents. Since mine and Ethan’s had come yesterday, we had gotten them here. We went to Ron and Harry’s dormitory to open the presents. 

The first present I opened was Ethan’s. Inside was a small ring with a guitar pick. He was one of the only people who knew I could play guitar, and it was beautiful. I hugged him in thanks for it. Next, I opened Ron’s, he had gotten me a box of chocolate frogs. I smiled at this. I then opened Harry’s, there was nothing in the box. I frowned. I looked again and saw a note. It said:

I couldn’t think of anything to get you because I thought you wouldn’t like any of them, so instead, I came up with an idea. If you want anything, and I mean anything at all, you can ask me for it. I give you 5 chances like this, you just have to say the word gubbins :)

I looked up at Harry and tackled him into a hug. “I will use it tactfully, so just hope you're lucky enough to not be dragged into something bad,” I tell him. He laughed before going back to his own presents. 

I opened Hermione’s present next. It was a muggle book that I had wanted for a really long time. It came with a note that said:

I know you really wanted to read this book, so I’m giving this to you. It’s my own copy. I wouldn’t do this for anyone else, but because you're such a good friend, I think you deserve it. Happy Christmas!

I smiled at the note while hugging the book to my chest for a few seconds before moving onto George’s present. It was a bunch of pranking supplies. I then opened Lee’s, it was the book Quidditch through the ages. Hagrid had gotten me a guide to magical creatures no one knows about. All of them came with a little note wishing me a merry Christmas. I then opened Minnie’s which looked like a cage. 

I opened it to see a small creature. After a few seconds, I recognized it as a niffler. Oh, my gods! I had come across one in the Forbidden Forest at one point and told Minnie all about it and she got me one for Christmas. I reached my hand into the cage and pet the little sleeping figure. 

Harry and Ethan had come over and were admiring the niffler. I went to open the next present which was from Mrs.Weasley. It was a huge blue sweater with a white M on it. There was also some pudding! I finished it right then, oops! I quickly put it on and snuggled into it. There was one last present, it was from Fred. 

When I opened it, it was a necklace with a plain blue stone. I looked at the letter and it said:

Hope you liked it! A beautiful gem for a beautiful gem. You can add any charms yourself if you want to! Happy Christmas!

I blushed a little then I immediately wore it. 

I had gotten Harry a broom servicing kit and told him to take care of it since it was a very expensive gift. I got Ron a box of his favorite chocolates. For Hermione, it was a really beautiful bracelet I had seen at Diagon Alley. For Ethan, he had become obsessed with the Supernatural series, so I got him quite a lot of its merchandise. For Minnie, I had given her a book and some supplies for different hairstyles that I thought she should try. For Fred and George, I had gotten matching woolen hats. I also got them customized scarfs that said “The Chaotic Duo Rules!” and once in a while, whenever I felt generous, it would turn to “The Triple Troublemakers Rule” For Lee, I got the same but as a woolen hat, I also got him a dye that could dye anyone's hair any color that he wants it, he just has to say it. For Hagrid, I had given him a decorated card thanking him and wishing him a merry Christmas. 

Once everyone was in the common room, we thanked each other, but I made a mental note to send everyone a thank you card. We then headed to the Great Hall for breakfast. Since not a lot of people were staying back for the holidays, all the four tables were not there, instead, there was only one in the center where everyone including the teachers sat. 

Out of nowhere, everyone but Fred and I started singing the same Christmas carol. By the time they finished, we were rolling on the floor because of laughing too hard. That was what we did all night. It took me about 15 whole minutes to stop laughing. They were going to do this every hour for the next few hours. 

After breakfast, we all decided to go have a snowball fight because it snowed so much. 

By the end of the day, everyone was drenched and exhausted, but we all slept happily. Their voices were also gone because of singing every hour. 

The next day when I woke up, Harry dragged me aside, wanting to tell me something. He told me about the invisibility cloak and this mirror that showed him our parents, and I was eager to see them too, so he told me he would show me tonight. He also told me about him seeing Snape threaten Quirrell.

When the sun set and Ethan retired for the day, I went outside the Gryffindor common room waiting for Harry. When he came, he put the invisibility cloak over us and led me through many corridors. We finally reached a classroom in which a huge mirror was placed. When I looked into it, I saw - Oh my god! No!

Tears welled up in my eyes. “What happened? What do you see?” Harry asked. “I see myself, mom, dad, you, Ron, Hermione, Ethan, Fred, Geroge, and” my voice cracked. “Thalia, Luke, and Annabeth,” I said. A tear made its way down my face, but I quickly wiped it away. 

Suddenly, I got angry. I didn’t want to see those people, I have been trying to push them out of my memory since forever and this comes and ruins it. I stormed out of the classroom, leaving Harry behind and went back into my room and cried myself to sleep. Oh, how I missed them. But they were the ones to betray me. I had made Harry promise me that he would never talk about that ever again. 

Over the next few days, I noticed the weather getting weird as if it were agitated. 

Once the holidays were over, and Hermione had come back, we were back to searching for Nicholas Flamel. At dinner, I was talking to Ethan, we were about to leave to our rooms to continue researching when Harry, Ron, and Hermione came running up to us. They dragged us into an empty classroom and told us they found who Nicholas Flamel was. He made the Philosophers stone and blah blah blah. I didn’t really listen to it, but we knew that the dog was guarding the philosopher's stone which had the elixir of life. Now we needed to figure out why Snape wanted to live such a life forever. 

That day I got an owl from Dumbledore asking me to meet him in his office that evening. When I got to the Gargoyle, I muttered the password “Cauldron cakes” I then knocked on his office door, and when he said ”Come in” I entered. 

“Please have a seat,” he told me. As I sat, a feeling of nostalgia hit me. It hadn’t been that long, had it? It had only been a few months! Oh, wow. “Miss Potter, I have called you to inform you about camp. Something is happening there...”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A/N: So, another chapter over. I'm really excited about the Percy Jackson chapters, it's got a huge plot twist later on. Also, the next few chapters will be a little longer as I'm trying to finish up the first Harry Potter book.   
> -TheBlueBookworm is out~~!


	18. Norbert the Dragon

“Since the winter solstice, you must have noticed the weather and water have been different. This is because Zeus’s lightning bolt was stolen. He thinks that either Poseidon or Hades stole it, and Peosiedon is offended, and your father also will not back down,” Dumbledore explained to me. “Okay, and?” I asked. “There is going to be a war if the bolt is not returned to Zeus,” “And what has that got to do with me? I told you, I do not want anything to do with that place!” I said.

“You see, the war will not only affect the camp, it will affect the whole world, it will be nature against nature. Some...people think that you have stolen it. They did not even know you were still alive until a few days ago. Other people don’t think that Poseidon or Hades or you stole the bolt, they think a fourth party has stolen it,” ”Okay, so they can have a quest and someone can get the bolt back” I said simply. 

“True, they can, but what is a better offering than a daughter of Hades, one of the people that could have been against Zeus because her father is not accepted?” he asked me. I opened my mouth to say something, but I couldn’t think of anything to say. 

“No, I’m not going!” I said. “Sure, you can just sit back and watch the world end,” he replied trying to manipulate me. “Maybe I will!” I snapped and stood up. I stormed to the door and just before leaving, I heard him say “Think about it”

I ignored that and stormed away. How could he? I told him everything that happened, and he goes and tells me that I have to go back and save the world because of someone else’s mistake! 

I walked to the grounds trying to calm myself down. I knew Ethan was waiting back in our rooms for us, but I needed to calm down first, otherwise, I’d lash out at him. I walked around the Black Lake as the sky turned a shade of very dark blue. After a while, I walked at the edge of the forest. I heard a hissing noise. I really needed a break and this wasn’t helping. Although, I could take out my anger on the monster. 

I turned around only to be greeted by a dracaena. She hissed in my face and started attacking me. I dodge as much as possible as I started to manipulate the shadows to cover her so she couldn’t see anything. I used my powers to shape the shadows like knives and I threw them at her. I watched as she shrieked and dissolved into monster dust. 

Panting, I started to walk back to the castle. I touched my cheek and pain shot through my head. Just then I noticed, I got a cut on my cheek. I was too tired to walk back to my room, so I shadowed to Ethans where he would be and fell on the floor. 

I don’t know why, but I was really tired today. It was a busy day. 

That night, I told Ethan everything, and even he tried to convince me to go back to camp. I got angry again and ran back to my room and shut the door in his face. 

Over the next few days, Ethan continued to try to convince me to go back there. I kept on refusing. There was no way I was going to accept. 

Time passed by quickly and there were only ten weeks left till the exams. Hermione had started to organize everything and started to study while Ron, Harry, and Ethan were lazing around. I also started studying, but not as much as Hermione. 

One day, Harry walked up to me and Ethan and told us that we were going to see Hagrid later today. When we reached his hut, all the curtains were closed. We knocked on the door and he opened it only a peep, and then quickly ushered us inside. 

It was really hot inside, I could tell even though I couldn’t really feel it. Being the daughter of Hades has its perks. I watched the kettle on the stove while Harry, Ron, Hermione, and Ethan asked Hagrid some questions. After some time, I asked, “Hagrid, what’s that?” I was pointing at the kettle. There was a huge black egg underneath it.

“Ah, that’s er - ” Hagrid said. “Where did you get it, Hagrid?” Ron asked, crouching near the fire to get a better look. Hagrid said he got it at some kind of pub. 

A few days later, Harry got a letter from Hagrid saying that the egg was going to hatch soon. While Ron was trying to get Hermione to come with us to see the dragon hatching, because how many times in your life will you get to see that, Ethan, Harry, and I were going to go no matter what. I could see this meant a lot to Hagrid and I wanted to be there for him when the egg hatches. 

Later that day, after about one hour of Ethan annoying me about going back to camp, we were finally headed to Hagrid’s hut, with Hermione who finally gave in. “It’s nearly out!” Hagrid had said, ushering us inside the hut. 

Now the egg was on the table and there were deep cracks in it. We all sat around it waiting for it to come out. All of a sudden, the egg split into two and out flopped a tiny baby dragon. It looked like a crumpled black umbrella, but I thought it was really cute. I love all tiny things. 

It sneezed and a few sparks flew out of its snout. “Isn’t he beautiful?” Hagrid said admiringly. He then reached out to stroke it’s head. It snapped at Hagrid’s singer, revealing it’s pointed fangs. “Bless him, look, he knows his mommy!” Hagrid said. 

Hagrid suddenly ran to the window as I was playing with the tiny dragon. He pulled the curtains closed. Ethan got up to see what happened. “Malfoy! He saw everything!” he told us. 

Over the next few days, we were very worried since Malfoy knew about the dragon which Hagrid named Norbert. 

We were taking turns feeding the dragon. One night Ron got bitten, and as he tried to ignore it, it got so bad that he had to go to the hospital wing. Poppy had asked what had bitten him and I made up a ‘Greek monster’ excuse. I was slowly growing attached to the baby dragon. 

When we finally convinced Hagrid he had to let go of the dragon, we only had to figure out what to do with it. Ron, well Harry had the idea to send it to Ron’s brother, Charlie, in Romania who was raising dragons. He got a letter back saying that he would take it, but we would have to sneak out at night. 

Apparently, Malfoy had taken the book from Ron in which he kept the letter from Charlie. Now Malfoy knew everything, but we didn’t have time to send a letter back to Charlie to change the time. We would have to risk it 

That night, we had decided only three people would go, since the cloak would not fit more than that. Ethan was the one who had to sit out. Ron was hurt anyways, so he couldn’t go. I offered Ethan my place, but he refused. I felt bad since I could go myself, but he wouldn’t say yes. He was just as stubborn as I was. 

Soon, the night came and Hagrid had a few rounds of waterworks before he finally gave Norbert to us. I was also getting a little teary-eyed since I had connected with the little baby. We had just dropped Norbert off at the Astronomy tower and were coming back when Minnie caught us. 

I tried to explain it to her, but she wouldn’t listen. Malfoy, who had ratted us out, was standing next to her. Neville who had found out about Malfoy trying to rat us out was trying to stop us and was also there. She took 50 points off of each of us and gave all 5 of us detention. 

The next morning, all five of us got a letter telling us that we had detention that night and to meet in the Great Hall at night. 

Filch was waiting for us when we went to the Great Hall that night. He took us to Hagrid’s hut, telling us that we would go into the forest. I didn’t mind, but Malfoy wouldn’t stop complaining. 

Hagrid, who was still a little down about Norbert, took us into the forest and told us we were looking for a hurt or dead unicorn. I didn’t know they existed, but a lot of things that I didn’t know existed do exist. 

Hagrid divided us into two groups to look, the first was Malfoy, Neville, and me with Fang (Hagrid’s dog), and Hermione, Hagrid, and Harry together. Malfoy would constantly bug us, but I ignored him and tried to stay focused on the task and in case something was following us. 

I was walking ahead of everyone with Fang when Neville suddenly screamed and sent up red sparks to let Hagrid know something had happened. I turned around to see Malfoy laughing, and Neville scared. Malfoy had scared him. Great. Just what we needed. 

We waited for Hagrid to come. When he did, he changed up the groups a bit. It was Hagrid, Neville, and Hermione together and Malfoy, me and Harry together. 

I was this time, walking behind them, Fang was with Harry. I heard a sound from somewhere, and when I went looking for it, I got separated from the other two. I cursed in Greek and decided to go back to Hagrid’s hut and wait for the others to come back. 

It took a while, but eventually, they did and they were all worried for me except for Malfoy of course. I assured them that I was completely fine and we were allowed to go. Once Malfoy was gone, Harry told me and Hermione what had happened. About the creature with the cloak drinking unicorn blood which will not let you die but will leave you with a curse. 

I thought that was pretty harsh. Harry told us he thought that the creature was Voldemort who was after Harry. That’s why Snape was trying to get the Philosopher's stone, for his master. 

I went back to my room and Ethan was up waiting for me to get back. I told him everything that happened. We talked about it for a while and then fell asleep. 

The exams were getting closer and closer. In no time at all, we were only 2 weeks away from the exams. Now, Harry, Ethan, and Ron have finally started to study. They were cramming things in, while Hermione and I were doing just fine. 

Even while studying, Ethan would annoy me nonstop about camp. I would try to ignore him, but it wasn’t easy. I really needed to study, because it was hard for me to concentrate, and I really wanted to stay in Hogwarts. 

Any other school, I would have gotten expelled from already, but I really wanted to stay in Hogwarts. It was the first place I felt like I kind of fit in. If I wanted to stay, I would have to pass the exams, and I couldn’t do that with someone always standing over me. 

During lunch one day, I had been revising through History of Magic, my worst subject when Ethan was practically shouting in my ear about it. I really wanted to study in peace for once so “Fine! I’ll go talk to Dumbledore about it!” I snapped at him before getting up and going to the library. 

In the library, I wrote a letter to Dumbledore, asking if I could meet him tonight about he-knows-what. Then, I continued to study. Before my next class, I sent the letter. At dinner, he nodded at me letting me know the answer. I bid goodbye to Ethan and headed to Dumbledore’s office later that night. 

When I reached I said “Fine, I’ll do it. When do I have to go?” “Oh, you don’t have to go back to camp. At least not yet. You see, there is a boy named Percy Jackson who is apparently a son of Poseidon, but they are not sure yet. You have to befriend him at his school,” he said. “What? I’m not leaving Hogwarts!” I said. 

“You won’t have to. You will do some of your exams earlier and then leave for a while, go to Percy’s school, make him trust you, the mist will help you a bit, and then you can come back, finish the rest of your exams, and then your school year will end,” Dumbledore explained. 

“Fine!” I huffed. “When am I leaving?” I asked him. “In a few days, I’ll let you know a day before, you don’t need to worry about that, just focus on your exams,” “When will my exams start?” I asked. “Tomorrow, if you want,” “What will I tell the others? Why I disappeared in between the exams? I can’t exactly say I had family problems or Harry would have to come too...” I said. “We will see about that later...” he said thoughtfully. I nodded and headed back to my room. 

I told Ethan about this and he was satisfied. He was smiling smugly. I rolled my eyes and went to sleep. Well, I went to lie down in bed and think about the day. In the next few days, I was a complete mess. I had said that Dumbledore asked me specifically to take my exams earlier for some reason he wouldn’t tell me about. 

I finished all of my Potions, Transfiguration, Charms, and Herbology exams before Dumbledore told me I would be going the next day. I had started packing. 

The next day, I hugged Harry and Ethan, the only two students who actually knew where I was going, goodbye. When I reached Dumbledore’s office, Minnie was there to see me off. I hugged her bye as well before I was given the place I would have to shadow travel. I left Grey (It’s what I named my niffler because of its color) with Ethan. 

I imagined the place and when I opened my eyes, I was in a different office. It looked like a teacher's office in a school. I placed down my bags and looked around the classroom. I was observing the view outside the window when I heard the door handle click. When I turned around I saw…

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A/N: Finally!!! Percy Jackson has started!!! There are so many exciting things on the way!!   
> -TheBlueBookworm is out~~~!


	19. Yancy Academy

Chiron. Oh, man, this was going to be awkward. I smiled slightly at him. “Millie!” he said. “It’s been long huh? Everyone thought you were dead. Annabeth was devastated,” he said sadly. I felt a pang of sadness and guilt for leaving Annabeth. She didn’t do anything to me, but I just couldn’t take it anymore. I could tell Chiron was careful not to mention Luke or Thalia in front of me. “Yeah, well, I’m fine. Now can you tell me what I have to do?” I said. 

I didn’t mean to come across as rude, but the faster this gets over, the faster I can get back to Hogwarts, my brother, and my friends. I could tell he was a little taken aback from my behavior, but he nodded. “You will be moving into the girl’s dorm, and you will have to befriend Percy. Um….” he looked like he wanted to say something, but he was hesitating. 

Resisting the urge to roll my eyes, I said “What is it?” “Grover. He’s also Percy’s friend,” he said. “Grover? Like Grover, Grover?” I asked for confirmation. He nodded. “Ok, anything else I need to know?” I asked. “Not really, Grover will explain anything you need to know,” he said. “Where are the girl’s dorms?” I asked him. He gave me the directions and I nodded in thanks and then I took off in that direction. 

I walked around for a while, trying to remember some of the corridors at least. No luck there, but eventually I found the girl’s dorms and knocked on the door. “Who is it?” I heard someone call. “I’m Millie-” I was about to continue, but I was cut off. “Then what are you waiting for? And why did you knock?” a girl said, who was now peeking through a gap through the door. 

She pulled me in and hugged me hard like we were long lost best friends. Chiron must have manipulated the mist. He could have at least told me! “Who are you again?” I asked her. “Okay, nice idea for a prank, but you know it won't work on me. Now...” she pulled me to sit on one of the bunk beds. “Tell me all about your family vacation!” she said almost squealing. 

“Um, sorry but I really don’t know you, and I wasn’t on a family vacation,” I said. “Right, I’m supposed to believe that my best friend totally forgot me!” she said. I gave a look in between a blank face and a confused face. She must have noticed the sincerity in my eyes since she frowned. “Come on! You really don’t remember your best friend? Sophia Miller?” she said. “Are you fine? Should I take you to the nurse or something?” she asked. 

At that point, I let out a laugh. I faked the laugh but tried to make it sound realistic. “Oh, my gods! You actually believed I forgot you!” I laughed. She went in to hug me. “You are really good at acting!” she said. I smiled at her. “So, tell me about your family vacation! Did you meet any cute boys!?” she squealed. “No, I did not meet any cute boys! And it was pretty fun, we went to the beach and I swam a lot!” I said improvising. 

“But you said you went to some mountains!” she exclaimed. “Oh, yeah. I must have forgotten to tell you, we changed plans last minute and went to the beach!” I said. That was a close one. “Oh,” she said. “Did anything fun happen?” she asked. “Um...not really no” I replied. “Ok, but I’m still confused. How did your parents manage to get the school to allow you to go on a vacation so close to the exams?” she asked. “I don’t know either,” I replied, shrugging. 

“Well-” She was cut off by the dorm's door’s opening and a girl with red hair and with two girls flanking behind her came in. The scene kind of reminded me of Malfoy. Sophia growled. “Oh, looks like the loser number 1 is back!” the middle girl said. Sophia was about to punch her, but I held her back. “She’s not worth it!” I whispered in her ear. I wouldn’t usually do this, but I wanted to find out the backstory before I do something. 

“God, I really hate Nancy Bobofit!” she said, sitting back down on the bed as the girl named Nancy went back out of the dorms with her minions following her. I sniggered at the name. Who’s last name is Bobofit? “Bobofit!” I said laughing again. This time Sophia joined in. We laughed until our stomachs hurt. It wasn’t even that funny, but it felt nice. 

After a while of talking, Sophia and I decided to walk around campus. It was a Sunday, so we had no classes. I changed into my favorite outfit and we walked around. 

There was a basketball court so we decided to go visit it. I used to play basketball before Hogwarts. I shot a few baskets before we set off again. We went to visit the pool. I saw two people, one in the pool and one outside. I was staring at them for a while before Sophia nudged me. I looked at her “What Soph?” I asked her. “Soph? That’s a new nickname, but anyways. Don’t you want to say hi to Percy and Grover? Your other friends?” she asked. She looked at me before waving at the two. “Perce! G-man! Look who’s back!” she said. 

They turned this way and when they spotted me, the dude in the pool waved at me while Grover watched me in shock. I stared back at him. I quickly snapped out of it and waved back. Percy got out of the pool and went to have a quick bath while we waited for him. “So, hi, Grover, it’s been a while,” I say. 

“Yup” he nodded. I saw Sophia from my peripheral vision, she was confused as to why we were acting so weird. Luckily, we were saved by Percy who came out of the showers, drying his hair. This is the first time I saw him properly. He had black hair and his eyes were sea green. For a second I thought I saw his eyes change a shade darker. 

I was snapped out of my thoughts when Percy walked up to me and pulled me into a hug. I was shocked at first, but I hugged back. “So how were those mountains you were going to?” he asked. “Oh, her plans changed last minute and they went to some beach instead” Sophia answered for me.

We talked for a while until we realized it was already 7. Our curfew was at 8 and we had school tomorrow, so we had to go back to our dorms. We had some kind of a field trip the next day. 

We packed our backpacks that night before sleeping. The next day when I woke up, everything happened so fast, in no time at all, we were on the bus going to some kind of museum. Chiron was there along with another teacher, someone who’s name I learned to be Mrs. Dodds. She looked a little suspicious to me, but I couldn’t be sure yet. 

I looked at Grover and even he was a little nervous, his eyes kept drifting to Mrs. Dodds. Then it was confirmed, but there was nothing I could do yet. 

Chiron, no wait, it’s Mr. Brunner right now. Mr. Brunner led us around the museum explaining to us things and giving us facts about artifacts. At one point he had asked Percy something about Kronos, but I couldn’t care less. I already knew that stuff. 

Soon, it was lunch and we all went out on the front steps of the museum, so we could watch the road. Overhead, a huge storm was brewing. I gulped nervously and exchanged a worried glance with Grover. Even though it was awkward between us, we still had a job. I had to befriend and watch out for Percy. Even though technically I’m already his friend. 

I looked for Chiron over the swarming heads of students and random families. When our eyes met, I could see he was getting anxious, but a second later, his face was blank as if the storm was normal. 

Sophia and I sat with Percy and Grover on the edge of the fountain. Grover asked Percy “Detention?” What? I must have missed a lot! “What? When? Why?” I asked suddenly. “Weren’t you paying attention? Brunner had asked Percy to stay back to talk to him...” Soph said. That explains it. “Sorry, you know it’s hard to pay attention with ADHD,” I said. “You have ADHD?” Percy and Soph asked at the same time. 

“Um...yeah, didn’t you know?” I asked them. They shook their heads. Oh, well, that’s great! Chiron just decides to leave that ‘LITTLE’ detail out. “So, Percy?” Grover asked, diverting their attention from me. I glanced at him thankfully before turning to Percy “Uh, what? Oh, right! Brunner wouldn’t give me detention. I just wish he’d lay off me sometimes. I mean - I’m not a genius,” 

We all stayed quiet for a while before “Can I have your apple?” Grover had asked Percy. He handed him the apple and we all sat there eating and observing our surroundings. 

Out of nowhere, Nancy Bobofit appeared with her friends and dumped her half-eaten food in Grover’s lap. “Oops,” she said, grinning. I could see Percy get very angry, and even I was. I wasn’t going to allow her to bully anyone, especially my friend...I looked at Sophia who was just as angry. 

I looked back at Percy who was just about to jump and punch Nancy in the face, but within a microsecond, Nancy had fallen down in the fountain. “Percy pushed me!” she said. I groaned, great, even more trouble.

The kids around us were saying something, but I didn’t hear them. Mrs. Dodds materialized next to us. She made sure Nancy was alright then she turned on Percy. They had some fight and Grover tried to help, but Mrs. Dodds took Percy back into the museum. 

I looked over to Chiron to see if he knew what happened and he was alarmed. We both nodded at the same time and jumped into action. We both ran inside the building and when we found Percy, Chiron threw a ballpoint pen to him. I launched into the fight with my sword. 

It was a Fury. When she laid eyes on me, they widened and then narrowed in concentration. “A daughter of Hades! Unfortunately, I won’t be able to hurt you, but him” she said turning to Percy. “I’d love to,” 

“No!” I shouted. But she was already charging at Percy. I ran up behind her and jumped onto her back just as she reached him. He swung the sword, wait what!? Where did he get a sword from? Anyways, he swung the sword and it sliced through the Fury and also grazed across my skin. The Fury burst into monster dust as I rolled onto the floor. Percy was not able to concentrate on anything since he was breathing too hard and trying to process everything that had just happened. Before he could see me, I took off outside the museum where everyone else was. 

I had turned my sword back into the pendant and changed direction to go to the washroom instead. When I went in and locked the door, I lifted my shirt to see a cut on my stomach which was bleeding. I winced as the shirt touched the wound. 

I closed my eyes to concentrate so I could get the ambrosia and nectar from my trunk. Once I did, I quickly cleaned the wound with the nectar and ate the ambrosia. I cleaned everything up and slowed my breathing. Once I looked normal-ish, I went back outside where everyone was sitting. I was exhausted but tried not to show it. 

I saw Chiron and Grover visibly relax when they saw me. I was limping a bit, but I tried to hide it. I could say I sprained my foot or something. I went back to my group of friends when Percy asked, “Hey, did that just happen?” “What? Percy are you alright?” I asked, pressing my hand to his forehead. He swatted my hand away, irritated, and said “I’m fine!” 

Sophia was the one to notice I was limping. “Mil, are you fine? Why are you limping?” she had asked. I could see Percy quickly turn to me curiously, but I would not get caught that easily. “Yeah, I had gone to the washroom and tripped over something. Probably sprained my leg, happens all the time, you know,” I made up an excuse. 

She nodded, but still looked worried. The worry never left Grover’s face. At one point it had almost been an hour, and he was still worried, I was about to laugh, but I’m not mean. I get he was anxious about what could happen. Many more monsters could attack Percy now, how long will we be able to keep up this charade?

“Have any of you seen Mrs. Dodds?” Percy asked. “Who?” Sophia asked. “Mrs. Dodds? The pre-algebra teacher?” Percy asked. Ah, the mist. “That’s not Mrs. Dodds Percy, that’s Mrs. Kerr“ “Who?” “Percy are you fine? Really? Should we take you to Ch- Mr. Brunner?” I asked, quickly covering up my slip of tongue with a cough. 

“I need to go talk to him,” he said absentmindedly. He wandered off to Chiron. I shared a look with Grover, but I knew we couldn’t talk right now since Sophia was still here. He gave me a look asking if I was fine. I looked at him like ‘I’ll live’. 

We then started talking to Sophia just to distract her. After a while, it was time to go back to school. When we went up to the dorms, I saw a letter on my bed. I saw it was addressed by Harry and Ethan. It read:

Hey Mil! I miss you! Just so you know, I’m writing this as soon as you left. Ethan misses you too, I hope to see you soon. 

I smiled at it and wrote a quick letter back to them. After everyone in my dorm was asleep that night, I decided I needed to see Chiron. He was the only one that could help me right now. My wound healed quickly in the shadows in the dark room. (A/N: I know this happens a few days after the attack from ‘Mrs. Dodds’, but I’m just going to have it now.)

When I knocked on Chiron’s door, I heard voices from inside and then “Come in!” came Chiron’s voice. I entered the room to see he was talking to Grover, they sighed. “Are you fine Millie?” Chiron asked me. “I saw you got quite a bad cut there on your stomach” “Yeah, I’m fine, I ate some ambrosia...” I told him. 

They started talking about the deadline of the summer solstice and about how Percy had seen and remembered Mrs. Dodds, and how he would get to know stuff. I added little things in between. Suddenly, I felt a presence. But I knew it wasn’t inside the room. I could feel someone in the shadows outside the office. 

“Shhh!” I told the two. They quieted. “There’s someone outside” I mouthed to them. We heard a thud and footsteps running away. We looked at each other and Chiron got out of his wheelchair and took out his bow. I got out my sword and we went into the hallway, but no one was there. 

We searched the rest of the hallways but found no one. I nodded as a goodnight to Chiron and Grover and went back to the dorms. Sophia was awake waiting for me. “Where did you go?” she asked me. “I had some questions I had to ask Brunner,” I told her. 

I knew there was no point in practicing in any of the tests since I wouldn’t even be coming back next year. I would write whatever and fail. Instead, I practice for my Hogwarts exams. I hide my books while practicing, pretending to practice for one of my subjects here. 

Overall, it was that bad. I still had to lie to Percy, but Percy wasn’t believing us since Grover always looked nervous, but I’d try to cover up for him. Soon, it was coming to an end. Percy was expelled so he would never come back here again.

I had become quite good friends with Percy and Sophia, so I would miss them over the summer. I would probably never get to see Sophia ever again, so I cried a bit when it was the last day. I tend to connect with people really fast. What am I doing? I should not let anyone this close to me again. I can’t get hurt again. 

On the last day, we all shared one last group hug, promising to be in touch, and then Sophia was picked up by her parents, and Grover, Percy, and I took the bus.


	20. I'm exhausted

The whole bus ride, Grover was glancing around nervously. I wanted to tell him to stop, I could tell he was getting Percy agitated as well. After a while, Percy said “Looking for the Kindly Ones?” Grover jumped in the seat and my eyes widened, but I turned my expression into one of confusion before Percy could notice. 

“Wha- What do you mean?” Grover asked, trying to cover up. “Oh, come on! You know what I’m talking about! You too Mil! You were there with them!” he said. He then confessed to eavesdropping that night when we were in Chiron’s office. I sighed and shared a look with Grover, we were going to have to tell him.

He nodded and took something out from his shirt pocket. It looked like a business card. I managed to read it as he handed it over to Percy. It said:

Grover Underwood, Keeper

Half-Blood Hill

Long Island, New York

(800)009-0009

Percy read it and said “What’s Hal- ” but Grover cut him off, “Don’t say it aloud! That’s my um… summer address,” he said. “Okay. So, like, if I want to come visit your mansion,” Percy said glumly. I felt bad for him. Over these past few days, I learned that Percy was not the richest person. 

I wonder if I could see Annabeth again without having to go back to the camp. If I couldn’t, would Chiron tell her about me? I had a lot of questions running through my head. I was zoned out the entire time the bus broke down and we got back in. 

Grover made Percy promise to let us drop him home. I could see Percy get a little weirded out. When we reached the bus terminal, Grover had to go to the bathroom, and I could see Percy wanted to go. I looked the other way, letting him think I wasn’t paying attention to him so he could slip away. 

He did that exactly. I discreetly followed him. Not in like a stalker way, just to keep him safe from monsters. I left a note on the seat we were sitting on for Grover telling him I was dropping Percy home and not to worry. Percy reached home safe and sound. 

After that, I headed back to camp from where I would be sent back to Hogwarts. I shadow traveled outside the camp borders. I could see the Big House. I had a hazy memory of the inside of it. I concentrated on it and when I opened my eyes, I was there. 

I looked around and Chiron was sitting in his wheelchair. “So, is there anything else I need to do?” I asked him. “Not right- ” he was cut off by Grover running into the room. “Percy! He-” “Grover! Please calm down and tell us what happened,” Chiron said soothingly. 

“Percy, he’s not safe!” Grover said. Chiron’s eyes widened in recognition, I was still confused. “Grover, look, I will not be able to convince him. You are his friend. He might listen to you. You have to tell his mom,” Chiron said, looking Grover straight in his eyes. 

Grover gulped and nodded. “I’ll help,” I told them. “Millie, you will have to shadow travel there with Grover, there is no time,” Chiron said. I was already tired from shadow traveling from there to here, but I held onto Grover’s hand and shadow traveled back to Percy’s apartment. 

When we reached there, I couldn’t open my eyes. I was dizzy and was about to faint. I swayed and Grover gave me support. He helped me sit down, leaning on a wall. He handed me some ambrosia to regain my energy while he went to get Percy. 

I took a bite of it, immediately feeling better. A few seconds later, I was back on my feet, waiting for Grover to come back with Percy. I frowned when he came back alone. “Where’s Percy?” I asked him. 

”He and his mom went to Montauk beach, we have to go there now,” he said. I nodded determinedly. I was still tired, but we had to help Percy right now. I held Grover’s shoulder and concentrated on Montauk beach. 

I could feel us shadow traveling, and when we reached, I again couldn’t open my eyes, but I hadn't fainted yet. Grover was carrying me somewhere, I couldn’t tell. He handed me some ambrosia again, and I ate it. 

A few seconds later, I had enough energy to stumble on my own. Grover led me to some kind of cabin and knocked on the door. A woman who looked a bit like Percy. “Searching all night! What were you thinking?” Grover said. 

“Get to the car. All three of you! Now!” The woman shouted. Percy went ahead of us and showed us to the car. We all got in Percy in front and Grover and I in the backseat. I blacked out for most of the journey. 

When I got my consciousness back, I took in the scene in front of me. We weren’t in the car anymore, I looked around and saw that we were on half-blood hill. Percy was staring in shock at an approaching figure and the woman shouted something. There was buzzing in my ears, so I couldn’t tell what she was saying. 

As the figure came closer, I recognized it to be a Minotaur. I waited for a few seconds before I could get up. As I did, I stumbled around and held onto a tree for support, blinking the spots out of my eyes. I saw Percy, and the woman dodge the attack of the Minotaur. 

I decided to distract it from them so they could figure something out. I grabbed my pendant off and threw it at Percy who was confused at first, but midair, it turned into my sword. He ran forward and caught it, but before he could get a good grip on it, the Minotaur was charging him. While Percy jumped to the side he lost the sword. 

I cursed quickly and ran around facing the back of the Minotaur. I yelled really loud and got its attention. It turned towards me and growled before running towards me, but this time it was ready for me to jump to the side. 

It turned its head and the horn almost impaled me. I sighed in relief as it missed and shouted at Percy to get to camp with Grover who was now lying unconscious. The monster turned back to me and charged again. This time, it went right past me and grabbed hold of the woman. 

It began squeezing the woman, and she suddenly dissolved. “Mom!” Percy called. “No!” he then growled. The monster turned towards him next and charged. Percy this time, instead of jumping sideways, somehow managed to land onto the creature's neck. 

I needed to do something, but I was frozen for a moment. Percy pulled at its horn and it snapped off. That’s what got me back into reality. The monster finally shook off Percy and turned to charge at him, but Percy ran the horn right through the side of the monster as it went past him. It burst into monster dust, just as I had pulled out one of my daggers from the shadows. 

I looked at Percy and he looked like he was about to ask me something, but I said “Not the time, I’ll explain later, right now we have to get into camp,” I said, pointing at the Pine tree. 

We both hauled Grover up, but halfway through, Percy fainted out of exhaustion and all of Grover’s weight was put on me, causing me to twist my foot. I groaned but continued when Grover was safe inside the borders, I went back for Percy. I carried his limp body to safety too before holding onto Thalia’s tree for support. I could barely stand with my foot like this, so I sat down, leaning on the tree, breathing heavily. Wow, I really was using a lot of things to lean on today. 

Just before I fainted, I saw Chiron coming up with a blonde-haired girl. Then it all went black. 

I woke up to a white ceiling. This reminded me of something...Oh, right, the first time I had made it to camp.

I tried to sit up, but a hand pushed me back down. I looked to see a blonde boy looking back at me sternly. “Who are you?” I asked him. “I’m Will, Will Solace. Son of Apollo” he replied. “You do know who I am right?” I asked him slowly. He looked about two years younger than me. “Yeah, you’re Millie Potter, daughter of Hades,” he said. 

“And you aren’t terrified of me? Not scared that I could kill you?” I asked him. I was confused. Everyone who knew my father was scared of me, well, except Ethan and Harry, but that’s different. “You’re probably not that scary. People just hype it up a lot,” he said, looking at something on a table. 

“Here, drink this,” he said, handing me a glass of something. I tasted it and immediately knew it was nectar so I finished it. “Can I go now? I have to go meet Chiron” I told him. “No, you need rest! You twisted your foot pretty bad back there! Also, you shadow traveled way too much for a month much less a day!” he scolded. 

Only then did I notice the cast on my foot. It must have been hurt pretty bad then. I tried to move it a bit inside the cast, but as soon as I did, it sent a jolt of pain through my leg. I hissed and Will turned to me. “You just tried to move it didn’t you? I don’t get it, why does everyone have to keep doing that?” he ranted, shaking his head. I smiled a bit at this. 

“I really need to go to meet Chiron!” I told him. “You’ll have to rest up here for now… Tomorrow morning you can leave,” he replied. I groaned in frustration. “Fine!” I said. 

Someone knocked on the door into my room and Will answered for me. “Come in!” he said. The handle turned, and the door opened. In came Annabeth. I stiffened up a bit. Will noticed this and said “Well, I’ll get going now then,” he cleared his throat and walked out of the room, closing the door behind him. 

Annabeth looked up at me and I noticed she had tears in her eyes. “Mil” she whispered. “I thought you were dead!” she shouted. “We all did!” “Yeah, Annie, I’m sorry for that, I truly am, but I just felt betrayed by Luke and Thalia dying was just overwhelming and I couldn’t take it anymore” I explained to her. 

She ran in to hug me. I hugged her back while she sobbed into my T-shirt, but I didn’t mind. I missed her too. I also may or may not have cried a little. After a little while, I rubbed her back and soothingly said “Hey! It’s fine, I’m here now, I’m fine”

When we both stopped crying, we caught up a little. I didn’t tell her about my other life yet, I just told her about going back to the Dursleys and them treating me like crap. She told me she grew up with the campers and everything. She told me she has always wanted to go on a quest of her own. 

At lunch, Annie had to go, so we bid goodbye. Will came in soon later with a tray with my lunch, which I gobbled up thankfully. “What?” I asked with a mouthful of food when I saw Will laughing. “Nothing,” he said, shaking his head. Once he had left, I decided to get some sleep. 

The next time I woke up, I looked at the clock, and it was 8. I looked out the window and the sun was shining. I groaned and sat up. It was already morning, I slept for over 12 hours! Just as I was yawning, Will came in. I swear he has like spidey senses or something telling him I’m awake. How does he come exactly on time? I will never get this. 

I looked at him shocked. He just chuckled and came towards my bed, checking my foot after taking off the cast. 

I was not only shocked at his timing, but I also realized that he was only 9 years old, yet he was acting older than me and knew so much about healing. “Okay! I think you can go now! But be careful and don’t get hurt a lot!” he said. “Thanks, Will!” I called out to him as I left the infirmary. 

It felt nice having a friend even though he wasn’t much of a friend. I guess it was nice having someone who doesn’t hate you and making new friends. That was confusing… Anyways, I walked around the Big House for a while until I found Chiron. 

He spotted me and waved me over. “Hi! Can I go back now?” I asked him. That was rude, I’ll admit, but I really wanted to go back to Hogwarts. He frowned but said “Not yet, you have to help Percy get more comfortable around camp,” “What?! Help him get more comfortable? Sorry, but that is only possible if the person helping is themselves comfortable around the place and you should know very well, that I am not!” I snapped at him. 

“You are one of the only people that Percy trusts,” Chiron said. “Yeah, but that’s because of the manipulation of the mist! I don’t even know him that well!” I said. “Yes, even though it is the mist’s doing, he still believes you are his best friend, you will have to stay,” he said. I sighed in defeat. 

“Where’s Percy?” The sooner I get this done, the sooner I can go back. “He’s not woken up yet, you could go meet Annabeth and maybe...Luke'' he suggested, carefully as if I were a time bomb. And maybe I was. That was the last straw. I stormed out. I ran and ran. I ran into the forest. 

Why is it that every time I come to this camp something or the other angers me. I have to get away from people whenever I get angry or my powers go out of control and I could hurt people. 

With the extra energy I had, I changed the shadows into different shapes. I concentrated all my anger on that. When I finally calmed down, my energy was almost completely drained out. 

Slowly, I made my way back into camp. I walked around for a while and eventually bumped into Annabeth and she knew something was wrong but didn’t bother me about it. She distracted me and I was grateful to her for it. 

At lunchtime, we decided to go visit Percy. When we checked up on him, he was still asleep. Annabeth wanted to talk to Chiron but I didn’t so I told her I’d walk around for a while and took off. People were staring at me the whole time. It was like everyone knew my story, they probably did, half of it at least. 

I walked to the dining pavilion, and then remembered the basketball court so I headed that way. It was empty and there was a rack with some basketballs. I picked one up and started to shoot some baskets. I heard some talking nearby, so I stopped, I didn’t want to face people right now which is weird because I’m such an extrovert.

I walked to the cabins. I don’t know what, but I felt a kind of force pulling me there. My eyes found the spot between the Hermes and Hephestus cabins where the fight had happened the last time I was here. I looked away, not wanting to remember that. I saw Annabeth and wanted to go talk to her but didn’t want to seem too clingy. 

I just blended into the shadows of one of the cabins and watched people going around. I saw Chiron say something to Annabeth and just then noticed Percy was standing next to him too. Chiron turned and looked straight at me. I was so shocked, I unblended from the shadows if that’s a word. 

Chiron waved me over. I reached there and smiled at Percy before looking at Chiron. “Show Percy around camp for me would you?” he asked me, but I knew I had no choice. I nodded. 

Once Chiron had left, I turned to Annabeth and asked “Where to now?” “We’re showing him to Hermes cabin,” she replied. 

The Hermes cabin was Luke’s cabin. I would have to see Luke again…


	21. Awkward!

I saw Annabeth study my stiff body for a second before turning on her heel and motioning for us to follow her. Percy glanced curiously for a second before following Annabeth. 

Annabeth knocked on the Hermes cabin door and the door swung open. “Well? Go on” Annabeth said to Percy. On his way in, he tripped over his own feet, I know right? The best way to introduce yourself for a first meeting. Annabeth and I followed him. 

“Percy Jackson, meet cabin eleven!” she announced. “Regular or undetermined?” someone called from inside. Confession time! I was hiding behind Percy and Annabeth so no one would notice me. Oh, that feels good to take it off my chest. “Undetermined,” Annabeth said. Everybody groaned at this. 

I was looking at the floor when “Now, now, campers. That’s what we’re here for. Welcome Pe- ” he cut himself off noticing me. It was like even the air stopped moving, sensing the tension. “Mil,” he whispered. Everything was silent as if everyone was scared about what was about to happen. A lot of them had either shocked or confused faces. 

“Luke,” I said, my voice strained and I nodded. We stared at each other for a few seconds before Annabeth cleared her throat. Luke quickly looked away before pointing at an empty spot on the ground and saying to Percy, “You can have that spot on the floor,” 

I couldn’t handle it anymore, I turned around and went out the door. I didn’t care if anyone was following me or not, I just left. I didn’t know where to go, so I kept walking around the camp. After a while, I see Percy being dragged out of the cabin by Annabeth. 

Even from far away, I could tell she started lecturing him. I laughed as I headed over to them. By the time I reached there, a huge girl was there too. “Percy Jackson,” Annabeth said “meet Clarisse, Daughter of Ares,” “Like the war god?” Percy asked. 

“You got a problem with that?” Clarisse sneered. “No. It explains the bad smell” Percy retorted. If this were a roasting battle, I would so have said ‘oooohhhh, burned!’ but right now, with Clarisse having three sidekicks, it was not the best thing to say.

“We got an initiation ceremony for newbies, Prissy,” Clarisse growled. She just then seemed to notice me, but as soon as she saw me, her eyes widened in fear and she looked away as if just looking at me would kill her. I rolled my eyes. 

It was dead silent for a while, waiting for Clarisse to make her next move. She regained her wits and was dragging Percy by the neck towards the toilets.

I knew Percy would have to make his own mark here, so if I helped him, he would be seen as weak. Clarisse started pushing Percy’s head into the toilet bowl, but just then the plumbing started to rumble. Water shot out of the toilet making an arc over Percy’s head and splashing Clarisse in the face who just fell over. 

Then the other toilets and six more streams of water blasted them back, they were pushed out of the bathroom. I also ended up drenched in water just like Annabeth, but when I followed her gaze to Percy who sat in a circle with no water around him. I looked at Percy in shock at first, then realization hit me. Chiron suspected he was a child of Poseidon.

Annabeth asked “How did you...” but trailed off. “I don’t know,” Percy replied. From outside we heard Clarisse shouting insults at Percy. Percy made some clever retort before asking Annabeth what she was thinking, and she said “I’m thinking, that I want you on my team for capture the flag,” As usual word spread fast. 

A few days later, I saw Grover and Percy sitting on the pier talking. I walked to them, hoping to join their conversation. “Zeus got the sky. Poseidon the sea, Hades the Underworld” Percy was saying. “Uh-huh,” Grover replied. “But Hades doesn’t have a cabin here,” “No. He doesn’t have a throne on Olympus, either. He sort of does his own thing down in the Underworld,” by now I was really close to them, but I wanted to see what Grover would say about my father. 

“If he did have a cabin here...” Grover shuddered. “Well, it wouldn’t be pleasant. Let’s leave it at that,” he said. That was rude. I’m right here! I cleared my throat. They both jumped and looked back. I walked off, knowing if I stayed any longer, it would only get more awkward. I don’t know why but people get scared of me, they don’t even bother getting to know me. No one does, they just think because of my father, I’m all evil. He’s not evil, he’s just perceived as dark and mysterious because he got the underworld to control. 

The next few days, it was awkward with me and Percy as well, but eventually, I forgave both of them. I was staying in the Big House and waking up before everyone and practicing, then disappearing into the shadows for the rest of the day, only coming out to talk to Percy or Annabeth. That was my whole day in camp. 

Capture the flag. Not that I was going to play or anything, just watch the game with Chiron. No one would want me on their team anyway. 

I wouldn’t be able to watch the match since they were playing in the forest, so I sat in an uncomfortable silence with Chiron. When the game ended, we heard shouts and whooping. I went to see who won and people were carrying Luke who was holding a flag. I watched, stoned faced. 

Annabeth told Percy to stand in the water that healed all his cuts. Out of nowhere a canine growl came from inside the forest. On the rocks, was a black hellhound with lava-red eyes and fangs like daggers. I saw Chiron had his bow in his hand. 

The hellhound was looking straight at Percy. I knew I had a little bit of control over it, so I could try to get it to go back to the Underworld. I stood protectively in front of Percy and raised my hand to stop the hellhound. 

It stopped right in front of me. “Stop! Go back home!” I shouted at it. It growled but didn’t move. “I said go back home!” I said more forcefully. It growled but didn’t move again. I manipulated the shadows to cover the hellhound so it couldn’t see anything. “Home now, or I’ll tell dad to give you punishment,” I told it. It whimpered, and turned around, running back to the underworld. 

Once I could feel it leave the camp borders, I nearly fainted. I really need to stop doing that. I used too much of my energy by manipulating the shadows. It was one of my powers that takes a lot of my energy. I managed to stay standing until Annabeth came to support me. 

“Hey, you fine?” she asked me. I was only able to nod. “That was a hellhound from the Fields of Punishment. It can’t have been...” “Someone summoned it. Someone inside camp,” Chiron said. “It’s her fault!” Clarisse shouted pointing at me. Me, the one who was barely able to stand up because of sending the hellhound away. “It’s the only one who makes sense!” she said. 

“Oh, yeah, then why would she send it away again huh?” Annabeth countered. Clarisse was silent for a second. “Because she wanted the attention and people not to hate her!” Clarisse finally said. “Quiet children,” Chiron said. 

A green trident was floating on top of Percy’s head. So, it was determined, Percy was a child of Poseidon. We all kneeled for him. “Hail, Perseus Jackson, Son of the Sea God,” Chiron said. 

The one thing that I thought was unfair was that Percy got a whole cabin to himself while I had to stay in a room in the Big House. 

After he got claimed, he started to settle into camp a little more, made more friends. I managed to avoid Luke completely. I really didn’t want to talk to or see him again. 

About two days after Percy moved into the Poseidon cabin, Chiron had called me to the Big House. “Chiron,” I said when I saw him. “Millie. I think Percy has become more comfortable in camp now,” he replied. Is this what I think it is? I tried not to get my hopes up too much though. Outside I still held a poker face, but inside I was rejoicing. 

I nodded to let him know I was listening. “You can go back to Hogwarts now if you like,” he said. “Okay, thank you,” I told him and went to pack my bags. When I was done, I went back down to say goodbye to Percy, Annabeth, and Grover. 

I hugged Annabeth goodbye, not sure if I wanted to come back to camp or not. I hugged Percy goodbye, promising to keep in touch. I then said goodbye to Grover which was a bit awkward after the comment he made. 

I then shadow traveled back to my room at Hogwarts. I wanted to surprise Ethan and Harry, but I couldn't, I would first have to inform Dumbledore that I was back. I looked at the time and it was 10 in the morning. There was still a little time until the exams were over so I shadow traveled outside the Gargoyle. I was getting a little exhausted so I decided to walk from now. I still stuffed a bit of ambrosia into my mouth before going. 

I knocked on Dumbledore’s office and “Come in!” Opened the door and practically skipped to his desk where he was sitting. “I’m back!” I said. “Well, miss Potter, that’s good. You will have to start your exams from tomorrow onwards and for the summer, you will not be able to go back to the Dursleys since people now know that you are alive. It is not safe for you, Mr.Potter or anyone else near you,” he said. I huffed, way to go spoiling the mood, but said “fine,” 

“You may go and meet your brother and friends now if you like,” he suggested. “Okay, thank you, bye Professor!” I called as I ran out of the room. I ran outside the Great Hall where everyone was doing their exams. The bell for the end of the exams for the day had just rung, so they were filling out. 

I saw Ethan, Harry, Ron, and Hermione heading to the grounds and decided to follow them. When they were reaching the Black Lake, I sped up and jumped onto Ethan’s back. I laughed in his ear at his expression. “Hey! I’m back!” I said as I got off him. I gave him a hug and then moved onto Harry, Ron, and Hermione. “Where did you disappear Mil?” Hermione asked me. “Oh, Dumbledore made me go somewhere. Top secret. Can’t share, sorry,” I said. 

“So, how were your exams?” I asked the four of them. “Great, but I’m not sure about the 3rd question...” “Okay,” “Fine” “Alright,” They all answered differently. I laughed. “Well, I missed you all!” I told them. 

The next few days went past pretty quickly, we did our exams and finally, they were over! Done with! Yes! I knew everyone was stressed out from the exam results, so we decided to do a small prank(not exactly) to help everyone release the stress. Even the teachers must be stressed out with correcting everyone's tests on time. They need to let loose too. 

That night at dinner, Dumbledore spoke before we were allowed to eat. “Exams are over! Let us have a feast in the name of that!” he said. With that, the food was here and everyone was eating. 

The front doors burst open as if someone was making a dramatic entrance, but instead, in came four tiny rubber balls. Everyone was silent watching them. They floated above every House table, and cracked exactly in half, and out came balloons from each of them. The balloons ascended and just as they reached the top, they burst at the same time, producing streamers and loud music out of nowhere. 

There were firecrackers coming from the streamers and our sign came up. People got up and started cheering as a Weird sister song came on. Even some of the teachers got up and started dancing. Those teachers got each other up and eventually, everyone started dancing, everyone except Snape. He just stormed out of the Great Hall, but no one even noticed. 

Everyone was partying hard and had let loose, leaving all the tension behind, at least for the night.


	22. A busy week

One day, I was roaming around the castle grounds with Ethan when Harry, Ron, and Hermione came running towards us. “Where is Dumbledore’s office?” Harry asked. “Why?” I asked back. He quickly explained that he thinks Snape is going to steal the stone today. I nodded and started running, slowly for the others, towards Dumbledore’s office. On the way there Harry told me that Hagrid had let slip that music would put Fluffy to sleep.

I said the password to the Gargoyle but it didn’t move, instead, a voice said “Dumbledore is not in his office right now. Please come back later,” I groaned. He’s not here. Perfect time for Snape to go steal the stone! 

Hermione was going to follow Snape to see where he was going. Ethan, Harry, Ron, and I went to the Gryffindor common room, to wait for Hermione. 

When Hermione came, she told us that she saw Snape and told him that she was looking for Flitwick, and when he went to call him, she ran away. 

“Well, there’s only one other thing I can do isn’t there?” Harry said. I understood what he meant, and was about to object when he continued “I’m going out of here tonight and I’m going to try and get to the Stone first,” “You're mad!” Ron said. “You’ve got to be kidding me!” Ethan said. “You can’t! After what McGonagall and Snape have said? You'll be expelled!” was Hermione’s reaction.

I knew there was no way I was going to stop Harry, so I would have to accompany him. “SO WHAT?” (A/N: Let go! BTS song pun XD)Harry had shouted in response to Hermione. Then he continued to make some long speech about it wouldn’t matter if they lost the House Cup if there is no one to win the House Cup and something else. I honestly wasn’t listening, because I was going to go with him and protect him no matter what. 

I had promised myself that I would not let Harry any harm no matter what and I was going to stick with it. “I’ll use the Invisibility Cloak. It’s just lucky I got it back,” Harry said. “You got it back?” I gasped. “And didn’t tell me?!” I scoffed. “I’m offended!” I said, placing a hand over my heart. Everyone looked at me weirdly except Ethan, he was smiling. “Just trying to lighten the mood,” I said quietly. 

“But will it cover all five of us?” Ron asked. “What? All- All five of us?” Harry asked, shocked. “Oh, come on! You didn’t think we’d actually let you go alone?” Ethan asked. “Of course not,” Hermione said briskly. “That is a problem, it won’t be able to cover us all,” she continued. “Yeah, don’t worry about that! I know a secret passageway there, I can take Ethan from there, we’ll meet you outside the door,” I told them. 

Harry nodded determinedly. After dinner that day, with me and Ethan praying for safety, we all sat together in the common room. Hermione, Ron, Harry, and Ethan were all freaking out. I wasn’t much because I‘ve been in dangerous positions before, but this was the others’ first time doing something so dangerous. 

I went over to each of them, comforting them in different ways. For Ethan, I told him “Hey, look, we’ll be fine! We’ve faced monsters together before, we’ll be alright! We just have to stop some dude from stealing a stone. I’d say this was much easier than when I saved you right? Besides, I’d never let anyone of you get hurt,” 

I told Harry “Hey, remember when we were smaller and when we were at the Dursleys, monsters would come every few weeks, but I would never let any of them get close to you. Duddly, maybe to scare him, a bit, but I’d never let anyone get hurt. It’s the same here. I promised myself that I would always protect you no matter what, and I will always do that all my life and even after death,”

For Hermione, I said, “Hey, we’ll be fine. Really. We all are there and have each other’s backs. I don’t think anyone would want to go against us! We are an amazing team!” 

To Ron, I didn’t know him that well, so I just said “Hey, remember when we defeated the Troll together? We were all amazing together, now we even have Ethan with us, imagine what we could do to the bad guys!”

Soon, people were going to bed, and when everyone was finally gone, Ethan and I left to go through our ‘secret pathway’. Really, I just shadow traveled there and hid us into the shadows. After 15 minutes, which felt like 3 hours because of our ADHA, they finally arrived. 

Since the door was already open. Fluffy was asleep and a harp was playing. Unfortunately, the tail was on top of the trapdoor. We managed to move it without waking Fluffy. We opened the trapdoor and looked through, there was no light on the other end. It looked like unending darkness. 

I decided I could go first, but I was the only one who could keep Fluffy asleep in case the harp stopped playing. “Okay, who wants to go first?” I asked. “I would have, but I can put Fluffy to sleep in case he wakes up,”

I looked back through the trapdoor and suddenly, I could sense something at the bottom of the ‘never-ending’ pit. I whispered the same in Harry’s ear and just as I was about to get to Ethan, Harry said “I’ll go,” My eyes widened, but I knew I couldn’t say anything, he agreed, plus I'm pretty sure there is something at the bottom. 

I would never let Harry go otherwise. I heard a growl behind us and we all turned around. Fluffy was awake. Telling Harry to go quickly, I took out my guitar and started strumming it to no tune. 

Eventually, it caught a tune, some random one I had heard somewhere but didn’t remember from where. Fluffy had fallen asleep. I was concentrating on playing the guitar so much that I hadn’t noticed that Hermione and Ron had jumped through the trapdoor and only Ethan was left with me. I had only noticed once Ethan tapped my shoulder and pointed at the hole in the floor. 

I nodded as I watched Ethan jump. Getting ready, I quickly turned my guitar back into a pendant before following Ethan. I heard a growl but it was too late for him, I was plummeting. I could sense the ground or whatever it was getting closer. 

I landed on something soft and squishy. “Mil!” Harry exclaimed in relief. “Everyone fine?” I asked. “Yeah,” I got a chorus of answers. “Lucky this plant thing’s here! Must be here to break the fall,” Ron said. “Lucky?!” Hermione shrieked. My eyes widened, realizing what it was, I was already scurrying away, towards the damp wall. 

Ethan and I managed to escape, but Ron, Harry, and Hermione were still stuck. “Wait, what did Professor Sprout say?” Hermione asked. “Devil’s Snare, Devil’s Snare, it likes the damp and the dark...” she continued. “Fire!” I and Hermione said together. Ethan and I took out our wands and said the incantation for fire and suddenly the plant started loosening its grip around the three. 

“Anyone hurt?” I asked them after we were all safe. “Nope,” After that, I looked around, and there was a stone passageway, it was the only way away from here. “Now where to?” Ethan asked. “There,” I said, pointing at the passageway. “Is there even something there?” Ron asked. “Yeah,” I replied. “How can you see that?” Ron asked. “I must have really good eyes,” I said, making up an excuse. “But Harry has glasses,” “So, what?” “You’re twins,” “Yeah, so that doesn’t mean that I can’t have better eyesight,” “Guys, now is not the time!” Harry interrupted our little banter. 

“Sorry,” I muttered. I decided to soak in a little of the darkness so that people could see better and not get suspicious about me. I could also get energized from the shadow traveling. I reduced it slowly though, as we were walking through the passageway, so it looked like the room we were heading to was lighter. 

As we got closer to the end, we could hear something like a flutter of wings. When we reached an opening, we were in another room, but this time with birds flying towards the top of the room. At the other end of the room, there was a door. “I’ll go first,” I said as I stepped in front of them all. I ran across the room to the door, but nothing happened. The birds didn’t come down to attack me at all. 

The others followed me when they saw that nothing was going to happen. Hermione and I both tried the Alohamora Charm on the door, but it didn’t budge. I looked back up at the birds. They have to be here for a reason. As I looked closer at them, I saw they were not really birds, they were keys with wings. When I told the others, Ron started to observe the keyhole. 

It looked like a big old fashioned one. I observed the herd of keys and saw one with a bent wing, Snape must have already caught it. “That one!” I said pointing to the same key. “But how will we get up there?” Ethan asked. “There are brooms!” Hermione said point to a wall. There were only three brooms, so Ethan, Harry, and I took them and took off. 

That reminds me that I missed a few of the Quidditch matches! Oh no! When I had that small mission to get Percy to camp, I missed a few matches. Great. Well, what can you do? We all went after the key, but the others started attacking us while the one we wanted flew away. Ignoring the pecking of the keys, I managed to corner the one we needed. 

I was inching towards it slowly when Ethan swooped in and caught it. When we landed, we ran to the door and Ethan threw the key to Hermione who caught it and opened the door. The other keys were diving towards us now, but the door was already open, so everyone ran in, I was last so I shut the door. I could hear the keys getting stuck on the other side of the door. 

Sighing, glad that we were out of immediate danger, I turned around only to see a huge chessboard with the pieces. “What?” I asked. “Should we try walking past the board, there’s a door on the other side,” Ethan said. “Sure, but I don’t think that will work,” Harry said. When we reached the end of the chess board, the pieces made a barrier with their spears, not letting us pass. “We’ll have to play our way across,” Ron said. 

We took the empty places, while Ron sat on the knight. Ethan took the pawn’s place, Hermoine took a castle’s place and Harry took the bishop’s place, leaving only the king’s place free for me. 

We started playing, and everything was going fine. We had a few close calls, but Ron figured it out and saved us last minute. We were so close to losing the game, but there was one move, one in which Ron would have to sacrifice himself. “No, Ron don’t!” I said. “It’s the only way,” he said. “No, Ron, he can kill me!” I said, desperately trying to find any other way, with no one getting hurt. “But then we won’t win and you can’t pass through!” Ron said. “Harry, you’ll have to take the king after it’s done,” Ron said. “NO!” Everyone shouted, but Ron was already telling the knight to go. 

It was too late, The king hit the knight and it broke into pieces, a lot of them hitting me, but I didn’t care about that, Ron had slid across the board and his head hit the ground hard. “Ron!” We cried out. Hermione and Ethan looked about ready to run out of their place to check on Ron, but Harry and I stopped them. “It’ll be considered a move, you can’t!” I said, still worried about Ron. Harry quickly stepped in front of the king, and when he took off his crown, we all ran to Ron’s side. 

He was still breathing, and I sighed, thank the gods. “We can’t leave him here, but we have to go on,” Harry said. “I’ll stay with him until you guys get back,” Ethan said. “Okay, be careful,” I told him. I hugged him hard before standing up and walking across the board after Harry and Hermione. 

I had one last look of Ethan kneeling next to and observing Ron before the door was shut. I turned around to look at our next obstacle, but it was already taken down. There was a mountain Troll in a very weird position on the floor, Snape must have knocked him out. Just then the stench hit me. 

I gagged, and quickly covered my mouth and nose with my hand. We walked past the Troll and into the other room. As soon as we had closed the door, right in front of it, a purple fire had started, blocking our view. This was no normal fire. The door out of the room was also blocked with fire, but this time it was black. 

There was a table with 7 differently shaped bottles. As we got closer to the table, I saw a piece of paper. I tried to read it, but my brain refused to calm down. Hermione read it. “What is it?” I asked. “This isn’t magic - it’s logic - a puzzle,” Hermione answered. I wouldn’t be able to solve it for my life, first of all, I wouldn’t be able to read it, especially with the adrenaline coursing through my veins, and forget having enough patience to sit and solve it. 

Hermione re-read the paper a few times, circling the table while muttering things under her breath. “Got it!” she said as she finished. “The smallest bottle will get us through the black fire towards the Stone,” she said, pointing to said bottle. 

“There’s only enough for one of us, maximum two...” Harry said. “Which one will get you back through the purple flames?” Harry asked Hermione. She pointed to another bottle. Harry told Hermione to go back, take Ethan and Ron back and to the Hospital Wing. It looked like she wanted to protest but Harry told her to go, and I gave her a reassuring look. 

Hermione engulfed us in a hug and I immediately hugged back, but Harry was embarrassed. When she let go of us, “You are really great you know? Both of you!” she said. “We’re not as great as you!” Harry replied. Oh, what a gentleman he is! But he really should only speak for himself. Honestly, she is amazing though. 

“Me!” Hermione said. “Books! And cleverness! There are more important things - friendship and bravery and - Oh, be careful both of you!” “Okay, look, Hermione, we don’t have much time, you drink yours first, you are sure which is which right?” I ask to confirm. She nodded and drank a long swig and shivered. “You’re fine?” I asked anxiously. She nodded. “Well, then go! Quickly before it wears off!” I said. 

She went through the flames and disappeared. I took in a deep breath before handing the small bottle that Hermione had told us to take, and nodded at him. He took a gulp and then I drenched the rest, not like there was much left. After that, we together walked through the door. 

When we reached, we looked around the room and saw that it was not Snape, but Quirrell! “You!” Harry gasped. He smiled at us as if expecting us. “I wondered whether I’d be meeting you here, Potters,” he said. “But I thought - Snape,” Harry was saying. “Severus?” Quirrell asked. 

“Yes, Severus does seem the type, doesn’t he? So useful to have him swooping around like an overgrown bat. Next to him, who would suspect p-p-poor st-stuttering P-Professor Quirrell?” he said. I did notice that his voice was sharper at first. Wow, he is really good at acting, I mean he fooled Albus Dumbledore! 

After that, Harry and Quirrell had a long conversation about how Snape was protecting Harry and not trying to kill him. I instead observed the room that we were now in, remembering anything that could help us, which wasn’t much since we were in a room with just a mirror. A mirror that I recognized as the mirror of Erised. 

Just then, ropes sprang out of nowhere and wrapped themselves around me and Harry “Hey!” I shouted, but Quirrell ignored me. I zoned out again, trying to think of a plan to get us out of here while trying to see if I could somehow get the ropes to untangle. Harry could tell, so he kept Quirrell distracted. 

Quirrell said something that caught my attention. “This mirror is the key to finding the Stone. Trust Dumbledore to come up with something like this...but he’s in London...I’ll be far away by the time he gets back,” This means he still doesn’t have the Stone. We needed to distract him so he can’t get the Stone. I looked at Harry and he understood he was going to have to distract Quirrell as I couldn’t engage in a conversation this boring and I’m better with coming up with spontaneous plans. Being a demi-god has perks too. 

While Harry distracted him, I tried all kinds of tricks to at least loosen the grips of the ropes on us, to no avail. I was snapped back into reality when Quirrell was saying ”I don't understand...is the Stone inside the Mirror? Should I break it?” I looked up at Harry like ‘Nothing’s working!’ He nodded slightly so Quirrell wouldn’t find out and then thought for a few seconds before his face lit up like he had an idea, but it had a flaw. Yup, I know him really well. 

Harry tried to look into the mirror but instead tripped because the ropes around his ankles were too strong. “Help me, Master!” Quirrell had said. I frowned, master, who was that? Also, was he in the room with us? If yes, then where? A voice answered, and it seemed like it came out from Quirrell. It said “Use the boy….Use the boy….” it said. 

“Yes - Potter - come here,” Quirrell said and clapped his hands, suddenly Harry’s ropes disappeared, but mine stayed firm. I couldn’t see what Harry was seeing, but I saw his hand twitch and lightly touch his pocket, but Quirrell didn’t notice. “Well, what do you see?” Quirrell asked. “I see myself shaking hands with Dumbledore. I- I’ve won the House Cup for Gryffindor,” Harry lied. 

Quirrell cursed and then pushed Harry aside to look back in the mirror, but a high voice spoke “He lies...He lies...” “Potter, come back here!” Quirrell shouted. “Tell me the truth! What did you just see?” he asked Harry. “I told you!” Harry said. Quirrell looked angrily at Harry before snapping his fingers. Suddenly, the rope around my neck tightened and before I knew it, I was trying to breathe but couldn’. 

I managed to make eye contact with Harry, telling him not to tell Quirrell anything. As tears built up in my eyes from the lack of oxygen, Quirrell looked back at Harry and asked “Well? Do you still think you’re telling the truth?” Harry nodded nervously. Quirrell rolled his eyes as he snapped his fingers again and the ropes loosened. I gasped for air. Taking in as much as I could in every breath. 

When Quirrell was not looking in our direction, Harry glanced at me, and I nodded at him encouragingly telling him that I was fine and that he did the right thing, protecting the Stone. The unknown voice spoke again. “Let me speak to them...face to face...” “Master you are not strong enough!” Quirrell said. “I have strength enough….for this….” it said. 

I was frozen as Quirrell started to undo his turban. As the turban fell to the ground, he turned, and where should have been the back of Quirrell’s head, was a face. A horrible face. It was white with red eyes and slits for nostrils, it kinda looked like a snake. “Harry and Millie Potter….” It whispered. I could tell Harry was terrified. 

“See what I have become?” The face said to Harry. It’s like everyone keeps forgetting me. Am I really this forgettable? Suddenly, images flashed through my mind. The images of the night my parents were killed by the ma- no, he was not a man, monster in front of me. “LIAR!” Harry was shouting at Voldemort. 

“How touching...” the face hissed(I’m going to continue calling it a face its more insulting), it was now smiling and Quirrell was walking backward towards Harry so the face could still see him. I couldn’t let him get any closer, I wouldn’t. I could use my powers to stop him. “NEVER!” Harry shouted and he was running back to the door with the flames. “SEIZE HIM!” The face screamed. 

As Quirrell turned and went to grab Harry, I quickly used the shadows in the room to stop him as much as I could. Harry ran, but was not able to make it to the door, Quirrell held his hand. Harry’s hand shot up to his scar. Harry screamed and wriggled out of Quirrell’s grip. I looked at Quirrell who was hunched in pain, looking at his fingers. They were blistering. 

“Seize him! SEIZE HIM!” The face was screaming. Quirrell lunged towards Harry again, but this time, I manipulated the shadows to go under him and they swept him off his feet and floated him in the air. I was losing energy. After a few seconds, I couldn’t hold him anymore, I let him fall onto the ground, on his back. As the back of his head (Voldermort’s face) hit the ground, I managed a little snigger. 

Quirrell and Voldermort growled at me at the same time. He charged me, but Harry grabbed his wrist. Quirrell shrieked and snatched his hand back from Harry’s grip. Realising, Harry’s touch was hurting him, he grabbed onto Quirrell’s face, causing him to stumble backward. Quirrell fell back, turned into stone, and crumbled. Harry fainted right there. 

Suddenly the ropes around my hands and legs weren’t there anymore. I fell to the floor on all fours. I went to check on Harry and he was fine. I took deep breaths to calm down before thinking about what I could do. Suddenly, the flame door burst open and Dumbledore came running in like he was ready for a fight. 

I explained everything that happened in brief. Then he levitated Harry’s unconscious body out. I was exhausted, but I didn’t even notice. I was only worried for Harry. I walked beside Dumbledore as he took him to the Hospital Wing. 

When we reached, Poppy quickly rushed him to a bed and pulled the curtains around him so she could see what was wrong. I was so worried, I didn’t even notice Ron was sleeping on the next bed. Ethan and Hermione were also asleep on different beds. When I did realize, I wondered how they fell asleep but understood that Poppy must have given them a sleeping drought or something. 

Dumbledore led me to a bed and told me to sit down, but I couldn’t until I knew Harry was alright. When Poppy emerged from behind the curtains and told me Harry was going to be fine, I sighed in relief and finally sat down and let Poppy inspect me. I asked about the others, and she said that they were fine as well. She gave me some ambrosia, and nectar and told me I would have to rest here for the night at least. 

The next morning when I woke up, Ron, Hermione, and Ethan were not there while Harry was still unconscious. I was notified that there was the last match of Quidditch left to decide the winners for the Quidditch Cup and had to almost beg Poppy before she finally agreed to let me play. 

The match was okay, I couldn’t play my best because of some of my injuries, but we still won the Quidditch Cup! I spent almost all my free time in the Hospital Wing, waiting for Harry to wake up. 

A lot of people were curious as to exactly what went down with the Stone. I didn’t tell anyone the truth except for Amelia, Cedric, Fred, Lee, and George, still leaving out some of the details like me using my powers. Of course, Ethan, Ron, and Hermione were the first ones to find out.

Three days after everything, Harry finally woke up. One day before the End-of-Year feast. Dumbledore talked to Harry about gods know what, before Poppy let us talk to him. I went and hugged him not at all caring about his injuries. 

He recounted what happened and everything Dumbledore told him about why his touch affected Quirrell/the face. I was kinda jealous of the amount of get well soon chocolates he got. I got a lot too, but he got much more, whereas I’m the twin that loves sweets more. 

Poppy then kicked us out of the Hospital Wing, saying that Harry needed rest. I managed to convince her to let Harry come to the End-of-Year feast. 

Later that day, Dumbledore sent me a letter saying he wanted to meet me. When I did, he just confirmed some details of how I would get back to camp. I would go to Dumbledore’s office the day everyone goes back home and I would go to camp from there. 

At the End-of-Year feast, when we entered the Great Hall, Slytherin banners were hanging from the ceiling. I was so happy. I smiled at all my friends in different places in the Hall. “Another year gone!” Dumbledore said. “And I must trouble you all with an old man’s wheezing waffle before we sink our teeth into our delicious feast. What a year it has been! Hopefully, your heads are all a little fuller than they were...you have the whole summer ahead to get them nice and empty before the next year starts... Now, as I understand it, the House Cup here needs awarding and the points stand thus: in fourth place, Gryffindor, with 312 points; in third, Hufflepuff, with 352; Ravenclaw have 416 and Slytherin, 422!” 

Everyone on the Slytherin table cheered at this. “Yes, yes, well done, Slytherin,” Dumbledore said. “However, recent events must be taken into account,” The whole room went very still. “Ahem, I have a few last-minute points to dish out. Let me see. Yes… First - to Ronald Weasley...for the best-played game of chess Hogwarts has seen in many years, I award Gryffindor house 50 points,” The Gryffindor Table cheered very loudly. I also clapped along with them, although earning many dirty looks from the rest of my table. 

“Second - to Miss Hermione Granger...for the use of cool logic in the face of fire, I award Gryffindor house 50 points!” Again, a burst of applause from the Gryffindor table, with me clapping from the other end of the Hall. 

“Third - to Mr. Harry Potter….” The room went deadly quiet. “...for pure nerve and outstanding courage, I award Gryffindor house 60 points!” Gryffindor was now ahead of us! This time the whole Hall burst into applause, well, except the Slytherin table. Even the teachers were clapping along. Dumbledore stopped the applause pretty quick though. “Fourth - to Miss Millie Potter and Mr. Ethan Nakamura...for always being there for their friends, no matter how badly it affected them, I award Slytherin house 60 points!” We were in the lead again. The whole Slytherin table started cheering really loudly. 

“Fifth!” Dumbledore said loudly. Seriously?! Is he playing games with us or something?! “To Mr. Neville Longbottom...standing up to our enemies is hard, but standing up to our friends is harder, therefore, I award Gryffindor 10 points!” Everyone was stuck calculating the points for a second. 

We’re tied! No one won! We all looked at the teachers, confused, who looked at Dumbledore as if asking how to react to this. “This year, no one wins the House Cup! It’s a tie!” he said. Everyone was hesitant at first but started to get excited. Soon everyone was clapping and jumping around. Ethan and I joined the other houses in the celebration as the Slytherin house was just sulking. 

Because of being so caught up in everything, I had forgotten about my exam scores. When they came out, not only did I pass, but I got the second best grades in the whole year after Hermione! 

Finally, it was time for everyone to go back. I knew the train ride back would be fun, so I managed to convince Dumbledore to let me go with the others, and then I would shadow travel to camp. Ethan also liked the idea, so we both were going back home with the others. Well, not home, but you know. 

On the last day, we were given a slip that said we weren’t allowed to use magic outside of school. I asked Harry if he was going to be okay and he said he would in fact enjoy himself. When I asked how, he said “Well, the Dursleys don’t exactly know that we’re not allowed to use magic outside of school now do they?” A smirk grew on my face. So my brother did have the mischievous quality. 

Just as I was about to get on the train, Hagrid stopped me and gave me a photo album. Inside were pictures of my parents with their friends. This brought tears to my eyes. I hugged Hagrid so hard, but still not being able to put my hand even halfway around him. We had a tearful goodbye and then when I got on the train, I said goodbye to Amelia as well. I would miss her a lot. She helped me a lot, she was the one that accepted me even though no one else did. 

I couldn’t find Ced, so I decided I would say goodbye to him on the platform. Harry, Ron, Hermione, Ethan, and I got a compartment and we sat together. We talked most of the time, eating candies the rest of the time. About halfway through the ride, Fred, George, and Lee came for Ethan and me, so we sat with them. We planned many pranks we could play the next year. 

After we got off onto the platform, I found Ced and hugged him goodbye then I did the same to Hermione and Ron who promised to write. With Harry, I cried a lot. “I’ll miss you a lot!” I told him. “Take care of yourself, and Iris message (I taught him how to do that and gave him some drachma) me if the Dursleys step even one toe out of line, I’ll come find them and they won’t know what hit them! Iris message me every week at least, okay?” He laughed a bit at this and nodded, through his tears. I hugged him hard. “I love you!” I told him. 

When the Dursleys arrived, I marched up to them with Harry and said “You better treat him properly, or you might want to sleep with an eye open at night!” I threatened them. Dumbledore had already notified them about me not staying with them for the summers. 

I watched from next to Ethan as Harry walked away with the Dursleys. I blinked the tears from my eyes as Ethan hugged me. I had to be strong, for Harry. This was the thought that helped me stop crying. When I was ready, I held onto Ethan’s hand and shadow traveled back to camp. More specifically the Big House where there were already people sitting on the couches. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A/N: Hey guys! This is over double the usual length for a chapter so this time double the dose of excitement with a 15 pages read!  
> -TheBlueBookworm is out~~!


	23. Let the quest commence!

On the couch were Annabeth, and Percy while Grover was standing and Chiron was in his wheelchair. “Okay, but Chiron you said that someone else was supposed to come on the quest?” Percy asked. Wow, amazing timing! Grover glanced at Chiron as if he could change Chiron’s mind. “Me,” I said, walking out of the shadows, Ethan following me. That must have looked so cool! I wish I could see it. 

All of their heads whipped around to see me. Annabeth and Percy were shocked, Grover was scared, and Chiron looked uneasy. “What?” I asked them. “Nothing, so now that you have everyone, I think you should get packing, you will leave tomorrow afternoon,” Chiron said. They nodded and went off to their cabins. “Hello, Chiron,” I said. “Hello, Millie,” We stood there in awkward silence for a few seconds before I said “Well, I should go pack now,” He nodded. “Yes,” Chiron said. I nodded and left, with Ethan behind me. 

I walked all the way to my room and dumped my things. Then, I walked with Ethan until the cabin area. I know what you're thinking, it’s unfair that Ethan gets to stay in the Hermes cabin while I have to stay in the Big House, but I know no one would want to stay with a daughter of Hades, so I didn’t fight it. 

When I went back to my room to pack, I took out my backpack. It was the same one I had used when I first came to camp. It brought tears to my eyes, but I quickly wiped them off and got to packing the essentials. After that, I put in the pictures of both my families. Yes, both, first my family by blood(just Harry)(A/N: who gets the pun?), and my family at Hogwarts (I managed to get them together for a last picture), and I love them both. 

I wanted to take the photo album that Hagrid gave me, but I decided against it because it would be extra baggage. I kept it in the shadows so I could summon it whenever I wanted. I also kept some food(including the candies from the train), water, clothes, and a medical kit. It would be selfish if I kept clothes only for myself. I wanted to get the other’s clothes, but it would be awkward if I showed up at their door, asking them for their clothes. I just went down to the gift shop and got some clothes I thought could fit them. 

After I finished packing, I decided to go to sleep as I wasn’t hungry. That night I had a horrible dream. Harry was captured by monsters and was calling out for my help, but my legs were rooted to the ground. I tried to call his name to assure him that I was here, but my voice wouldn’t work either. Suddenly, one of the monsters near Harry raised a sword, NO!! I wanted to scream. My throat was hurting from how hard I was trying to speak, but I didn’t care. 

The monster plunged the sword into Harry. I watched the life slowly drain out of his eyes. NO! HARRY! HARRY! NO! Suddenly the ropes that were holding me were gone, I could speak again. I ran to Harry, held him, and tried to stop the bleeding, but it was too late. There was nothing that could be done. I sobbed and sobbed. The tears were not stopping, then the scene changed. 

I was in a white room with Hermione, Ron, Fred, George, Lee, Amelia, Cedric, Ethan, Annabeth, Luke, and Thalia. They were standing in a circle around me. “It’s your fault Harry is dead. You promised to protect him, it was your job and you failed,” They said in unison. 

I was on the floor now, sobbing. Suddenly Harry was kneeling next to me, with a hand on my shoulder. I gasped, then hugged him and cried into his shoulder. “You see him too?” I looked up to see only Ron, everyone else was gone. I nodded. “He’s not real, just our imagination, he’s not real,” Ron said. I didn’t say anything, but when I turned back to Harry, he was gone. I curled up into a ball and cried. I cried my eyes out. My only real, blood family was gone and it was all my fault. I couldn’t protect him. 

I woke with a jerk, tears streaming down my face. I wiped my face, breathing heavily. I got off the bed and rummaged through my trunk for a drachma. When I found one, I made my way to the bathroom and switched on the hot water tap. I iris messaged Harry and was about to say something when his sleeping figure came in front of my face. 

It was Harry, he looked so peaceful. He was in Duddley’s old bedroom. He was alright. Nothing happened. I took a few deep breaths while looking at Harry, his chest rising and falling. After I calmed down a little, I looked around the room to see Hedwig sleeping in his cage and Grey who seemed to be awake, but I could tell he was about to fall asleep. 

I had given Grey to Harry because it wasn’t safe for him at camp. Actually, now that I think about it, he could steal some stuff for me. Maybe next time….No! I’m not coming back here again. Not if I have a say in it. 

I swiped a hand through the iris message and watched it dissolve. I sat back down on my bed and looked at the time. It was 4 in the morning. Knowing there was no way I was going to sleep again after that nightmare, I walked around camp for a while. Every few minutes, me tearing up as I remembered the dream. I needed a distraction. 

I headed to the basketball court. I picked up a basketball and started to warm up. After I did that, I shot some baskets from the three-pointer. I practiced my skills like lay-ups, faking, and other things for about half an hour. “Nice one!” I heard a familiar voice call as I shot a three-pointer. I turned around to see Will. “Hey, Will,” I said, startled. It was usually me who scares people, so I wasn’t used to this. 

“Hey. I didn’t know you played basketball,” he said. “Well, I used to in school,” I told him. “I play too, wanna have a one-on-one?” He challenged me. “Sure,” I say, passing him the ball. He got ready at the center of the court and checked before starting. He tried to dribble past me, but I blocked him. I managed to take the ball from him and do a layup. The ball went into the basket and I pumped my fist into the air. “Yeah!” I said. 

“You’re better than I expected,” Will said. “Yeah right! You’re just saying that ‘cause I won!” I teased him. “No, I’m not!” “Really?” “Fine, we’ll play again. The first to 10 points,” he said. “You’re on!” I said as I got in position. We played for a while, making me forget all my worries for the time being. This was probably the first time in camp that I actually had fun. In the end, he won by 1 point. 

We walked to breakfast together, me not caring about other people’s stares. I got to know more about him like how he came to camp and about his family. It was like because he was a son of Apollo, he brightened up my day. 

After that, he had to go do other stuff, while I was left with my thoughts again. I was contemplating going to Annabeth but decided against it, she must be busy packing and saying bye to her siblings and friends. I had no one to say goodbye to except Ethan and maybe even WIll. 

Soon, it was noon and we were supposed to meet up at the Big House after getting our bags. I dashed up the stairs and quickly got my things, Ethan following closely behind me. I talked to him while waiting for the others. When everyone reached, we made our way to Thalia’s pine tree. I put my hand on its bark, smiling at the times, we used to laugh and have so much fun together. 

I saw Annabeth looking at the tree sadly too and smiled at her. Out of nowhere, a wave of guilt hit me. I remembered my dream. I wanted to sit and cry my eyes out, but Luke came running out of nowhere and I didn’t want to talk to him so I pulled Ethan aside and pretended to talk to him, wiping the one tear that managed to come through. Ethan saw this though. 

“Mil! Why are you crying?” He asked in a whisper, so no one else would hear. “I’m fine,” I told him. “No, you are not, tell me what’s wrong!” “Fine, I had a bad dream last night. Harry died,” I said quietly. He looked at me sympathetically and hugged me. I hugged him back for a few seconds before pulling away and wiping my eyes. I was not going to cry in front of everyone. “Mil, look, Harry is safe, nothing will happen to him, you know that,” Ethan said to me. I nodded, taking in a deep breath. After I exhaled, tears welled up in my eyes again, this time because I was going to leave Ethan behind. 

“I’m going to miss you,” I told him, my voice breaking at the end. The thing is, with a quest, you never know what is going to happen, and it is not safe. “Just be careful, would you?” he said, hugging me again. I laughed this time “When am I not?” I asked him. “All the time?” He asked back. We laughed together. “Bye, then,” I told him, going to stand near Percy, Annabeth, and Grover. 

They were saying their goodbyes. Luke was there, so I completely avoided looking in that direction. Suddenly, someone grabbed my hand and dragged me to the side. When I looked, I saw it was Luke. “What do you want that is so important to drag a person?” I snapped at him, irritated. “Sorry, but you wouldn’t talk to me any other way,” He said. “And I wanted to apologize, I should not have said those things when we were younger, but I didn’t know who I should have trusted and who I shouldn’t have,” he said. “I was just trying to fit in,” ”You don’t think I wanted to? After being shunned aside for so long, and being bullied at school, you don’t think I wanted to finally be accepted somewhere? But apparently, the fates didn’t want me to, so everyone hated me, but I would have been fine. I would have been alright if you were there for me. It was a huge shock that as it is Thalia died, and then that Greek gods were real, then you, the only person older than me who I trusted say those things to me? That was too much, I couldn’t take anymore,” I poured out every single emotion I felt that day. 

I looked up at Luke who had a pained expression on his face. “I know, and I’m sorry that I did that to you and let you go through all of that alone,” He said. He looked at me as if expecting me to say something. Then I understood, he wanted me to accept his apology. God, I can be so thick-headed at times. “Look, I don’t know if I can forgive you, but I will think about it. I’ll need some time,” I told him. He nodded and wandered off somewhere, I didn’t see, I was still too busy processing what exactly happened. I don’t usually vent out my feelings to people like that. I must still trust him subconsciously. But why? After he betrayed me, why? 

I was snapped out of my thoughts by Will running up the hill with some kit in hand. “Hey,” I said to him. “Hey Mil!” he replied cheerily. I smiled a little. “So here, I packed a medical kit for you guys just in case,” he said. “Thanks, Will!” I told him. “Yeah, this is in case you guys get hurt or anything, but that does not mean go and get hurt on purpose,” he said. I laughed. “Sure Will,” I told him. “Take care,” he said before taking off, back into camp. I smiled at him, he was getting smaller by the second as he ran down the hill. 

People were looking at me weirdly and I scoffed and looked away. Just because I’m a daughter of Hades, doesn’t mean I don’t have feelings. I walked back to Percy, Annabeth, and Grover. 

They were walking towards the van now. I followed them. Once they all got into the van that Argus was taking us to the bus stop in, I looked out the window and waved bye to Ethan. He smiled back at me and waved too. As the van drove, I watched everyone become smaller and smaller.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A/N: Hey guys! Another chapter uploaded! It's a little short but we're almost at 200 pages! After the 2nd Harry Potter year, I've got quite a few plot twists planned out, and I'm excited to share them with you guys!  
> -TheBlueBookworm is out~!


	24. Grover is a true goat

We quickly sped through the countryside, and into western long island. Grover was sitting in front, while Percy, Annabeth, and I were sitting in the back, shoulder to shoulder. I started getting bored- the ride was pretty long, I’ve gotta admit. I mean, it’s not like I like being about to be killed every few minutes, but that’s the fun part you know? Not sitting around in a car like this. Now I wish I had gotten one of my books, but that would only be a burden while running from monsters. On quests, we have to travel light. 

“So far so good,” Percy said. “Ten miles and not a single monster.” Annabeth gave him an irritated look. “It’s bad luck to talk that way,” I told him, but he ignored me and asked Annabeth, “Remind me again - why do you hate me?” He looked right past me as if I didn’t exist. I scoffed internally, I always get ignored! “I don’t hate you,” Annabeth replied. 

“Could’ve fooled me,” “Look...we’re just not supposed to get along, okay? Our parents are rivals,” “In that way, technically, my father doesn’t get along with anyone,” I say, interrupting them. Annabeth gave me a pointed look, while Percy was smugly smiling at her. “Why?” Percy asked. “Why what?” I asked back. “Why are our parent's rivals?” Percy asked, motioning to Annabeth and himself. 

“How many reasons do you want?” Annabeth said. “One time my mom caught Poseidon with his girlfriend in Athena's temple, which is hugely disrespectful. Another time, Athena and Poseidon competed to be the patron god of Athens. Your dad created some stupid saltwater spring for his gift. My mom created the olive tree. The people saw that her gift was better, so they named the city after her.” 

“They must really like olives,” Percy said. I covered up a snicker with a cough, after making eye contact with Grover. Annabeth shot me a glare before saying, “Oh, forget it,” “Now, if she’d invented pizza - that I could understand.” Percy said. Whoa! He is on a roll today. “I said, forget it!” Annabeth snapped. 

By the time we got to Manhattan, the sun was setting and it was starting to rain. I loved the rain, even though it was Zeus’s, I absolutely love it! Argus dropped us off at the Greyhound Station. I noticed a poster on a wall with Percy’s picture on it. It said: HAVE YOU SEEN THIS BOY?

I frowned as Percy ripped down the poster and glanced at us, I pretend to not have seen it because I respect people’s privacy. Argus unloaded our bags, and I helped him out. He nodded to us, wishing us good luck as he pulled out of the parking lot. I watched as Percy and Grover sat on a bench in front of us while we were waiting for the bus, they were talking about something, but I only caught one thing: “Smelly.” That was when I decided I needed to know nothing they were talking about. 

I sat on a bench with Annabeth, we both were quiet, she seemed deep in thought. “Hey, you fine?” I asked her. “Uh-what? Sorry, yeah, I’m fine, just….thinking” she said. “About?” I asked timidly because whenever people think so deeply about things, it’s most likely they don’t want anyone else to know about it. “The quest, how in the world are we supposed to find the Underworld?” she replied. 

“I don’t...know. But, we’ll figure it out. Remember when we came to camp?” I asked her. Even though I didn’t enjoy remembering those times, this was to comfort my best friend, and I would do anything for her. 

It kept raining, for really long, I mean sure, I enjoyed it, but this was obviously Zeus, though I’m wondering why he isn’t doing worse. All of us (except Grover) being demigods, got restless waiting for the bus. Even Grover started to get bored, so we started playing a game called Hacky Sack with one of Grover’s apples. 

I was horrible at it compared to Annabeth and Percy. Annabeth was amazing! The game ended when Percy had tossed the apple to Grover and it got too close to his mouth and it must have been his goat instinct, but he gobbled it up in one go! 

Grover started to apologize, but, Percy and Annabeth, and I were too busy cracking up. He was a blushing mess, I felt so bad for him, I engulfed him in a hug in an ‘it’s okay’ way. 

Finally, the bus came around! Grover started sniffing the air as we started to get onto the bus. “What is it?” Percy voiced what was going through all our heads. “I don’t know. Maybe it’s nothing,” Grover said. But it didn’t look like nothing, the worried look on his face. Once we got on the bus, we luckily, all found seats together. Us being lucky is very rare, so I don’t know how to feel about this...whether I should be happy that something went right, or that something went right before something else goes horribly wrong. 

Three old ladies entered the bus, who looked like triplets, just with different colored hats. I recognized them as the Furies. They sat in the front row, crossing their legs over the aisle making an X. Nobody was going to leave the bus. The bus pulled out of the station and Percy said “She didn’t stay dead long, I thought you said they could be dispelled for a lifetime.” “I said if you’re lucky,” Annabeth mumbled back. “You’re obviously not.” 

“All three of them,” Grover said “Di immortales!” While Annabeth was thinking of a way to escape, I leaned over to Percy and whispered in his ear, “It’s not your fault, the Furies don’t stay gone very long, I learned the hard and hilarious way.” He smiled a nervous smile at me before we turned to Annabeth. 

“It’s okay,” Annabeth said, clearly comforting herself more than us. “The Furies. The three worst monsters from the Underworld. No problem. No problem. We’ll just slip out the windows.” “They don’t open,” Grover whined. “A back exit?” she seemed to understand there wasn’t one. It dawned on all of us that there was no other way out but from the door, we entered. But that was not an option. “They won’t attack us with witnesses around. Will they?” Percy asked. 

“Mortals don’t have good eyes, their brains can only process what they see through the Mist,” I told Percy. “They’ll see three old ladies killing us, won’t they?” he asked, looking at me. “Hard to say. But we can’t count on mortals for help. Maybe an emergency exit in the roof….?” Annabeth said. 

We reached the Lincoln Tunnel, and the bus went dark except for the lights running down the aisle. It was suddenly quiet, without the rain pattering on the roof of the bus. The first Fury, Alecto (don’t ask how I know, it’s a long and very weird story including a very angry water nymph), I think got up and announced to the whole bus “I need to use the restroom.” “So do I,” said Megaera, I guess. “So do I,” said the third one, Tisiphone. 

They all started walking down the aisle. “I’ve got it,” Annabeth said. “Percy, take my hat,” I started to get what she was saying so when Percy said “What?” I was the one to reply “You’re the one they want. Turn invisible. Maybe you can get away,” “What about you guys?” Percy asked. “There is an outside chance they might not notice us- ” Annabeth started, but I cut her off. “Oh, with me here they will, but we know each other, we’ll manage,” “I can’t just leave you,” Percy tried protesting. “Don’t worry about us!” Grover said. “Go!” 

Percy took the Yankees cap and put it on, and disappeared. Alecto started sniffing, and then turned to look at an empty seat which they had passed, I figured Percy was there, but I prayed that he would be fine. Please be fine Percy, Please be fine! She turned back to us and continued our way. The other two followed. When they reached us, they surrounded us. 

Their bodies started to shrivel into leathery brown hag bodies (basically their real selves). They had bat wings and hands and feet like gargoyle claws. Their handbags turned into their fiery whips. “Where is it?” They hissed at us. The other people on the bus started screaming, they must have seen something horrible. “Hey! We don’t need to bring out our weapons here! We can sit down and talk like civil people, not that some of us are,” I mumbled the last part. “Where is it?!” They hissed louder. 

“He’s not here! He’s gone!” yelled Annabeth. The Furies started to raise their whips, and all of us drew out our weapons, me one step in front of the others. I put my hands in front of me, “We don’t have what you are looking for,” I said, but they charged. Suddenly, everyone was thrown to their right. The bus slammed against the side of the tunnel, but that didn’t stop the bus or the Furies. 

We were now out of the tunnel when the Furies charged at us again. I could see the people scurrying to get off the bus. I stepped in front of Annabeth and Grover. “STOP!” I said. “We have been given instructions by the Lord not to kill you!” Alecto said as she pushed me aside. By the time I was back on my feet, she was lashing her whips at Annabeth and Grover. 

Suddenly, I heard a shout from the front of the bus that caught everyone’s attention. It was Percy. He was visible again. I cursed loudly in Ancient Greek. The Furies turned to him. They started walking towards him, and me, Annabeth and Grover started to move behind them, looking for an opening. 

I looked up after examining my wrist which seemed to have been twisted badly when I tumbled into the seats after being pushed by Alecto. I observed the scene and Percy had his sword in his hand, the same one Chiron had given him. I saw Alecto was about to lash her whip at Percy, and I quickly grabbed it so she wouldn’t be able to. The whip was so hot, even I was starting to feel the heat. She turned to me as I let go of her whip. 

I knew she had orders to not kill me, but she could hurt me all she wanted. I glanced at the others and Percy was fighting Megaera alone while Grover and Annabeth took on Tisiphone. I quickly got out my knives and started to slash at her, but she was dodging my attacks. She lashed her whip and it caught my hand. While that had me distracted for a minute, she turned to attack Percy. Just as she was about to reach him, I impaled her with my knife. Percy was panting and nodded his head in thank you. He had already stabbed Megaera. 

We both turned to Annabeth and Grover in case they needed any help, but they had finished off Tisiphone. “She is going to hate me even more now,” I said referring to Alecto. Suddenly, thunder shook the bus. “Get out!” Annabeth yelled at all of us. “Get out!” We all dashed to the exit of the bus. 

I took a second to look around at the mortals to see if anyone was injured, even though I couldn’t do anything to help them. I thought I saw someone who looked like Cedric. I quickly turned away so he couldn’t see me. “Our bags!” Grover realized. “We left our- ” BOOOOOOOM! 

The windows of the bus exploded and the passengers ran for cover. “Run!” Annabeth shouted. “She’s calling for reinforcements! We have to get out of here!” We plunged into the woods, but before I ran into the woods, I heard someone who sounded exactly like Cedric say “Millie!?” 

I froze for a milliesecond (A/N: get it? 😝). This is not the time to sit down, sip tea, and gossip, even if it is Cedric. (A/N: She’s become very British huh? Ok I’ll be going now...) So I turned and ran into the forest with Percy, Annabeth, and Grover in line with me. 

After a while, when we felt like we were deep enough into the woods, we slowed down to a walk.


	25. Aunty "M"

All of us were trying to catch our breaths. One we did, we walked in pairs, Grover and I behind Percy and Annabeth. Grover was shivering out of fear. Even I was in shock from the sudden attack, but not as much as him. I wrapped one arm around Grovers shoulders in a comforting way. I kept whispering soothing things to him;“It’s okay,” “We’re safe now,”

Eventually he started to calm down a little. I was exhausted and wanted to sit down for a while but Annabeth kept coaxing us into getting further into the woods. “Everything.” Percy kept muttering. “What?!” Annabeth snapped. “All our money was back there. Our food and clothes. Everything.” he replied.

“Well, maybe if you hadn’t decided to jump into the fight- ” “What did you want me to do? Let you get killed?” “You didn’t need to protect me, Percy. I would’ve been fine.” “Sliced like sandwich bread but fine.” Grover said. “Shut up goat boy.” “Tin cans...a perfectly good bag of tin cans” Grover mumbled.

I felt anger flare up inside of me for a second before disappearing. I couldn’t get angry, not with people around me. He really cared about the tin cans? The picture of everyone I cared about was in that bag! Wait….I have power over fire right..? Maybe I could get back the bags and everything? I could try? 

I was about to close my eyes to focus, but I suddenly heard a shrill toot-toot-toot. Suddenly alert that something might be attacking us, I whipped around with my swords in my hand. “Whoa!” Grover held up his hands. He was holding something, when I looked at him curiously after I put my swords back, he said “My reed pipes still work! I think I can remember the “find path” song!” 

He tried a few notes, but he couldn’t get it right. He was starting to get frustrated. 

The shadows from the trees were starting to energize me slowly. 

Suddenly I heard an ‘oof’ and a ‘thump’ I realised Percy had unknowingly smacked face-first into a tree and fallen on his butt. Trying to hold in my snickers, I offered to lead as I could see in the dark very well. Even with my assistance, Percy kept having these mini accidents. Let’s just say there was a lot of cursing. 

After what felt like forever, but was probably only 20 minutes, I saw a neon sign ahead. It was then I realised I was starving. We kept walking until I saw a deserted two lane road through the trees that were now thinning. The neon sign was closer now and easier to read. Only when I looked up and squinted at not being able to read the sign did I remember that I was dyslexic. Having all my school books in Ancient Greek completely made me forget that English existed. 

“What the heck does it say?” I hear Percy ask. “I don’t know,” Annabeth said as I too shrugged. “Aunty Em’s Garden Gnome Emporium,” Grover informed us. We all lined up at the entrance, the smell of the food entrancing us. “Hey,” Grover warned us. Grover, Annabeth and Percy said something that I didn’t hear. 

I was snapped out of my trance when the door creaked open. A tall woman, with a veil covering her face stood in front of us. 

“Children, it is too late to be out all alone. Where are your parents?”

“They’re….um...” I say trying to come up with an intelligible excuse, but Percy interrupted me. “We’re orphans,” “Orphans!?” she said looking appalled. Well, sounding appalled. I was wondering about why she would wear that veil over her face when she said “Oh, my dears. You must come in, poor children. I am Aunty Em. Go straight through to the back of the warehouse, please. There is a dining area,” in response to something Percy said. 

We thanked her and went inside. “Circus caravan?” Annabeth asked. “Always have a strategy, right?” Percy said. Man, these two fight a lot! “Your head is full of kelp,” Annabeth replied. I kept in my sniggers. “Well, then he wouldn’t have gotten the idea of the circus caravan,” I said putting the pieces of the conversation together. 

Annabeth shot me a glare but continued walking. There were more statues in the warehouse. I started to feel that something was off…

“Please sit down,” Aunty Em said. After that I focused on nothing but the food. Grover tried to snap me out of my daze, but right now, almost nothing could. Once she placed the trays in front of us, I gobbled down the burger and fries without a second thought. After I finished eating, I stared at my tray longingly, wishing for it to magically fill up. 

I was still thinking about food when Annabeth, who was next to me, shot up. I gave her a confused look. “We really should go,” she said. I knew that she would only act like this if there was something really wrong. “Maybe we should,” I say. 

“Yes!” Grover said, looking a bit relieved. “The ringmaster is waiting! Right!” Percy looked reluctant to go though. I stood up after tugging Percy’s shirt to make him do the same. 

“Please, dears, I so rarely get to be with children. Before you go, won’t you at least sit for a pose?” Aunty Em pleaded. “A pose?” I asked. “A photograph. I will use it to model a new statue set. Children are so popular, you see. Everyone loves children,” Ok, no. This is weird. A woman feeds us, then asks us to pose for her sculpture? Somethings off here, just can’t put my finger on it. Sounds familiar too, hmm….

“I don’t think we can ma’am- ” Annabeth was saying, but was cut off by Percy. “Sure we can. It’s just a photo, Annabeth. What’s the harm?” 

“Yes, Annabeth. No harm,” Aunty Em purred. Ok, now Percy’s losing it too, yay. Aunty Em lead us back to the front door, into the garden of statues. There was a park bench, she positioned us with me and Annabeth sitting on it and Percy and Grover standing on either side. She stepped back as if to admire the shot, muttering a few thing under her breath. 

It was then that I realised, she had no camera in her hand. “Look away from her!” Annabeth shouted. 

Whatever happened next barely registered in my mind, Annabeth disappeared, Percy and Grover dove behind the bench and I curled up into a ball (don’t ask why) out of instinct, my head in between my legs. 

I saw Medusa (Yes, it was the Medusa. Can you believe our luck? The Furies and Medusa, both in one night?) was busy with Percy, so I got on all fours and crawled away. I couldn’t hear anything that was happening as I went to find a hiding place. 

When I calmed myself down enough to listen to what was going on, I find that Medusa was (Trying to, Annabeth kept interrupting her) giving a speech. She was trying to get Percy to cooperate with her. I tried coming up with a plan while assessing the situation. 

I quickly engulfed Medusa’s head (If you can call it one) in a black smoke so Percy could escape. Once he ran off, I kept the smoke in place so while Medusa was distracted, we could come up with a plan to kill her. 

Everyone was too tired or trying to catch their breaths. Suddenly, Grover flew out from nowhere with a tree branch the size of a baseball bat and started smacking the black smoke. I could feel that not one of the hits reached its target. I was starting to get tired so I yelled to Grover to get back. 

Once I was sure that everyone was either looking away or closed their eyes, I let the black smoke dissolve. It seemed that Percy and Annabeth had made a plan, because Percy’s sword was out and he was watching Medusa’s actions through a glass ball. 

Grover had charged again with closed eyes, but Medusa swatted him away like he was a fly. He landed on a pile of bricks and was knocked unconscious. 

Although exhausted, I stood up, swords in hand and eyes closed. “Millie watch out!” Percy shouted at me. I dived to my right. Apparently, my little trick infuriated Medusa. She now 200% wanted to kill me. I stumbled back to my feet. My eyes remained shut as I got into fighting position again. 

Out of nowhere, I heard a shlock!, and then a hiss. I heard her disintegrate. “Ugh, ew!” I groaned. “Oh, yuck!” Grover says. My eyes were still closed out of disgust, but I heard Annabeth say “Don’t move.” So I didn’t. 

“Now it’s fine,” she says. I relax as I open my eyes. A wave of dizzyness hits me and I have to clamp my eyes shut again for a minute before I feel better. 

We all stumbled back to the warehouse. I saw Annabeth holding Medusa’s head in a black cloth. We all sat on the same table where we ate. I rested my head on my hands on the table. “Mil, you fine?” Annabeth asks me. I nod without lifting my head from the table and mumble “Yeah, just need a minute,” Everyone falls silent around the table again. 

I probably dozed off a little, I’ll admit, but when I managed to lift my head, Percy was not at the table. 

“Do you think you’ll be able to walk?” Annabeth asks me. “Yeah, but not for too long,” I say. “Everyone’s fine right? No one got hurt?” I ask, worriedly. “Yup, just minor scratches,” Grover answered. I nod. “Gods, today was awful!” I mutter as Percy comes back. He had a cardboard box into which he packed Medusa’s head. He filled out a delivery slip. I got a sneak peek over his shoulder, it said:

The Gods  
Mount Olympus  
600th Floor,  
Empire State Building  
New York, NY

With best wishes,  
PERCY JACKSON

Took a while to decipher that, but just as long for Percy to write that. 

“They’re not gonna like that,” Grover said. “They’ll think you’re impertinent” “I am impertinent,” Percy sassed back. 

Annabeth shook her head, but said “Come on. We need a new plan,”

We were exahausted that night. Two surprise attacks? TWO?! We camped in the woods that night, not too far from the main road. We took some food and blankets from Aunty Em’s. 

Everyone seemed drained and darkness was my advantage, I could gain some energy from it, so I offered to take first watch and everyone gladly accepted it. 

I could try getting the picutres back now, but I would need more energy. I focused on the shadows and willed them towards me, they instantly made me feel better, but just as I was about to try to get the pictures back, Percy sat up. 

“Can’t sleep?” I asked him. “Yeah,” he whispered, propping himself up against a tree. I sat down next to him. “What’s keepin’ you up?” I asked. 

“I just can’t stop- I’m mad at the Gods. They have us run their errands and don’t even care about us! I didn’t even know they existed when I was dragged into this mess!” I let him rant for as much time as he needs to. It looked like he needed to let off some steam. After he was done, I smiled at him.

“The Gods, they don’t really care about us, they only care about themselves and their ego.” I tell him. 

After a moment of sitting in silence, I asked him, “Feeling better?” “Loads!” He says. “Thanks!” “Anytime, Percy. You’re my friend, you can come to me and rant whenever you need to, you can tell me anything,” I tell him and he returns a grateful smile. 

He settles down and eventually I can hear his breathing slow down. He’s asleep. 

I decide to try again, but just as I’m about to, I can soft hear sniffles and bleating. I inwardly sigh and walk over to him quietly. “Hi,” I say perching myself up against a nearby tree. 

“You fine?” He sat up. He shook his head. I waited for him to go on, but he didn’t. Realizing he must have heard the conversation between me and Percy, I say. “You know your my friend too? You can tell me anything.” “It makes me sad,” “What does?” I ask softly. He pointed at the ground. 

“And the sky. You can’t even see the stars,” It was then that I noticed that there was trash all over the floor. I was so concentrated on getting the pictures back that I hadn’t noticed. It also doesn’t help that I’ve seen so much trash that this didn’t bother me. 

“Your species is clogging up the world so fast...ah, never mind. It’s useless to lecture a human,” Offensive! I care about the environment. 

“At the rate things are going, I’ll never find Pan,” He sighed. “The God of the wild?” I asked. He smiled a bit, “Yeah,” “Grover, if you ever need help with anything, you can come to me. After getting me to camp twice, I feel like I owe you.” 

“Remember the first time we came to camp? You used to sing all the time!” “Oh yeah!” I say trying to act cheerily. “Could you sing what a wonderful world? That was always my favourite song!” 

“Ok, fine,” I say, and turned my pendant into my guitar. “Whoa! How’d you do that?” “My dad gave this to me as a gift. My pendant turns into a guitar and swords, as far as I know,” I tell him. 

I start strumming the guitar softly as to not wake Percy and Annabeth. Eventually I figure out the chords and I start singing, staring into the dark night. 

I see trees of green, red roses too  
I see them bloom, for me and you  
And I think to myself  
What a wonderful world

I close my eyes. 

I see skies of blue and clouds of white  
The bright blessed days, the dark sacred nights  
And I think to myself  
What a wonderful world

The colors of the rainbow  
So pretty in the sky  
Are also in the faces  
Of people going by  
I see friends shaking hands, saying, “How do you do?”  
They’re really saying, “I love you”

I hear babies cry, I watch them grow  
They’ll learn much more  
Than I’ll ever know  
And I think to myself  
What a wonderful world  
Yes, I think to myself  
What a wonderful world

As I strum the last chords, I hear snores and can tell that Grover is asleep. I let the song sink in for a while before willing my guitar back into a pendant and standing up.

I take a deep breath and feel myself looking into a fire, being engulfed by it, but not feeling a thing. I imagine the pieces of the pictures rising from the ashes and coming together. Once the pictures are assembled, I reach my hand and grab both of them. As soon as I do, I lose my concentration and stumble backwards and crash into a tree. 

I scramble around, looking for the pictures. When I find them, I hold them up so I can examine them. They are the same! I let out a happy chuckle. 

Will I be able to get our bags back? I could give it a try. I tried imagining the fire again, but I had no energy left. I sat down for a while. After gathering as much energy as I could, I stood up again. 

I reached into the fire, imaging the bags forming again. I got all four bags at once and opened my eyes. Almost instantly, I was hit with a wave of dizziness. I fell to the ground. This took way too much of my energy. I looked around for any shadows but there weren’t many left. I looked at the sky and realised dawn was breaking. Great, not only did I not get any time to sleep but I also am drained with no way to reenergize. 

Soaking in the shadows as much as I could, I realised I must have spent a lot of time in the fire. Yeah, that’s the name now, ‘the fire’ 

By the time Annabeth came to, I could walk again, and I was leaning against a tree and the bags were in her line of sight. Her eyes widened. “Are those-!?” she exclaimed. I nodded, not wanting to use up too much energy. “Did you get them back?” nod. “You must be exhausted!” She said scrambling to the bags. She went through her bag hastily and took a flask out. 

It was nectar. I shook my head. “No, Annabeth! We might need it later! For emergencies!” I tell her. “This is an emergency! Have you looked at yourself? What were you thinking not waking me!? You need sleep!” She was like a concerned mother, but I appreciated it. I agreed, but only took about 3 sips. 

Annabeth had taken some crackers out and started nibbling on one after offering me one. I refused, not in the mood to eat. Annabeth told me to take a nap, that she would wake me when the boys would arise. 

I was knocked out as soon as my head hit the ground.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A/N: A bit longer than my usual length for a chapter, but, it's my Christmas treat for you guys! Merry Christmas! Also.....We've finally reached 200 pages! 
> 
> -TheBlueBookworm is out~~!


	26. Cyclops aren't bad?

Unfortunately, I didn't go dreamless. I had the same dream of Harry as the night before. Then, suddenly my dream switched to my father sitting on his throne. “Hello, Father,” I say in greeting, trying to calm myself down. “Millie.” his response is. 

I know he seems like a distant father who doesn’t care for me, but he does, in his own way. He’s just not used to showing affection. 

“Thank you for bringing me here, but why?” He knew my dreams, every moment of them, and would try to help me whenever possible, but he is the God of the Underworld, he isn’t free all the time. “Yes, I wanted to know why you are on a quest with a thief.” He says bluntly. “What? A thief? Who?” I bombard him with questions. 

“My brother's son of course,” His brother's son? But that's Percy. “Percy? No, dad, he didn’t steal the lightning bolt! They think you did!” I tell him quickly. 

My father opened his mouth to say something, but the dream dissolved and I was being woken by Annabeth. “Hey!” she says. I yawn, and sit up. “Is there something to eat? I’m starving,” are the first words that tumble out of my mouth. Annabeth chuckled. “Even when we were younger you would always ask for food,” 

Grover smiled fondly at that memory. I gave a quick smile, showing I remembered it. 

Percy threw me a packet of some chips, I didn’t even bother looking at the name before stuffing myself. Mmmm, that’s good! When I opened my eyes, I noticed Grover was sitting cross-legged on a blanket with a pink ball of fluff in his lap. 

With a start, I realized it was a pink poodle. “Awwww!” I cooed making my way to the poodle. I waited a minute, letting it sniff me before I started petting it. I took it from Grover, placing it in my own lap. I started to play with it. “What’s its name?” I ask Grover, knowing he can speak to animals. 

“His name’s Gladiola!” He says. “Hello, Gladiola!” I say. 

Grover explained that Gladiola had run away from his family who was rewarding a $200 award for whoever returned him. “So we turn in Gladiola, we get money and we buy tickets to Los Angeles. Simple.” Annabeth says. 

-Time skip-

“I did not cry while giving Gladiola back!” I exclaim to Percy for probably the 600th time today. We had gotten the money and we were now on a train, headed to Los Angeles. None of us fancied taking the bus after what happened last time. 

“Right!” Percy snorted. “You were just having an allergic reaction!” he mocked. “I didn’t say that!” Sitting for two days on a train gets boring, so even Annabeth and Grover didn’t stop this. They wanted entertainment. We were the entertainment. Yay! 

I slept. A lot. I needed the sleep I missed last night. I probably slept one whole day. I woke up in between a conversation between Annabeth and Percy. I didn’t open my eyes and stayed in the same position. Annabeth was saying “Percy, you know you can’t barter with Hades. You know that right?” she paused for a second, glancing my way, checking if I was still asleep I bet. 

“He’s deceitful, heartless, and greedy.” I zoned out after that. This was totally unfair. The only reason my father acts like that is because he was shunned by his family. He doesn’t know love, never known it. He was always treated with hatred or being betrayed by his own kin. That changes a person. 

I held in tears. I was always the odd one out in my family, everywhere. One of the very few people in the world that is a demiwitch. My eyes burned. 

I eventually drifted off into a deep, dreamless sleep. 

When I stirred awake, the first word I heard was ‘food’. I opened my eyes to find Percy’s face way too close to mine. I almost jumped out of my seat because of the scare. “What the Hades! Percy!” I shouted, getting a few disgusted looks thrown my way. 

Percy was almost rolling on the floor, laughing so hard. Annabeth was trying not to smile and it looked like Grover was also just waking up, he had a small smile plastered on his face. Rolling my eyes, and standing up, I ask “So, what now?”

“Sightseeing,” 

We were now on our way to see the Gateway Arch. It was about a mile from the train station. We were in an underground museum. Annabeth was pointing out random, interesting facts. Percy and Grover were trailing behind, eating jelly beans. I listened to everything she said because she's my friend, no explanation needed. 

I was trying (emphasis on the trying please) to read about the construction equipment that was used to build the Arch. I turned around to tell Annabeth about something weird I found, but she was talking to Percy and Grover. I realized I had missed out on a conversation between them.

Grover was saying “It allows him to become darkness. He can melt into shadow or pass through walls,” “Hey, I can do that too! Who are you guys talking about?” I said. They all turned to look at me. I felt like I was barging into a private conversation. 

Annabeth sighed and said “We’re talking about our friend downstairs and his hat,” I paused for a second before it hit me. My father and his Helm of Darkness. “Oh, what about our friend downstairs?” I asked.

“Nothing!” Percy said quickly. It was crystal clear he was lying. “If you don’t want me here, just tell me, you don’t need to make up lame excuses,” I said before turning on my heel and storming off. 

Annabeth called my name, but I ignored it, I just needed to be alone right now. I needed to calm down unless I wanted to hurt someone. I walked out of the museum, it wasn’t that crowded which was good, I needed air. 

Why did no one want me? What did I do to them? Tears were threatening to spill out. I found a place void of people somewhere behind a building. I swung off my bag and sat on the floor, my back flat against the wall. Taking deep breaths, I was trying not to let all those negative thoughts through the wall, but one or two drops made it through. 

I’m useless, I can’t protect myself, forget Harry. I have no purpose on this Earth. All I ever do is get people hurt. No, no! I can’t be thinking these things, not now at least. I’m on a quest, I have to focus on this. 

After a few more deep breaths, I find the courage to get up. I look around for a washroom to freshen up. Once I do, I wash my face with water so it doesn’t look like I was crying. I didn’t know I was crying until I looked at myself in the mirror. 

Once I looked presentable, I went out, looking around for Grover, Annabeth, and Percy. I spotted Annabeth and Grover near the exit to the museum. I didn’t mean to, but I snuck upon them. I just walked up behind them and stood there quietly. 

When they did notice me, they were trying to tell me Percy didn’t mean it that way and that they were sorry, but I waved them off with a ‘I’m fine’.

“Where’s Percy?” I asked with a monotone voice. 

“The lift was full, he’s going to come down in the next one,” Annabeth said. At that moment, I saw a figure falling from the top of the Arch. My eyes widened as the figure splashed into the water near the Arch. 

It was starting to get crowded, so it took me a while to get to the water. By the time I did, the person was crawling out of the water. I was startled, how did someone survive that fall? 

I helped the person out, only then realizing it was Percy, and he wasn’t wet. I was fussing about him too much to realize that Annabeth and Grover had followed me. Once I confirmed that Percy was fine, I finally calmed down. Grover was saying “First things first, we’ve got to get out of here,”

We made it back to the train just in time. 

Once we got settled down, Percy hesitantly turned towards me. “Save it,” I say. “You don’t like me? Tell me. You want me to go away? Tell me. I’ll keep my distance if you want,” I turn away from him. It was getting awkward so I got up and muttered something air before I walked away. 

I paced the train, wondering if I was too harsh on him. 

After a while, the train started to slow down. I got off, not caring exactly what this place was, and wandered out of the station. Looking around for something to eat, I strolled down the streets. 

The aroma of hot dogs hit me. I followed the smell to a food stall. Taking out the money from my bag, I bought about 5 hot dogs. What? I was hungry. I took one and put the rest in my bag as I started walking back to the train station. 

I heard some ruckus from an alley nearby and decided to go check it out. 

There was a Cyclops that was tumbling into the trash cans. In front of him were standing a few Empousai. If you looked at it in a certain way it was like the Empousai were bullying the Cyclops. But that wasn’t possible, Cyclops are evil. 

I took out my swords and finished the Empousai off. I was about to stab the Cyclops when I noticed just how scared he was. I didn’t drop my swords, but I did lower my guard a little. 

“Thank you,” The Cyclops whimpered. Maybe all Cyclops aren’t bad…

“Were...were they hurting you?” I asked. He nodded. He looked like a kid. “I’m Millie,” I say. “My name is Tyson,” 

I just realized that the train was going to leave any second, so without a second look, I ran to the train station. 

What I didn’t realize was that I was now covered in monster dust. This probably wasn't the best way to show up in front of your friends, panting. When I reached the compartment Grover, Annabeth, and Percy were sitting in, they started to get worked up. I was bombarded with questions. 

“Mil! What happened?” “Are you okay?” “Is there something in the train?”

I held up a finger, asking for a minute to catch my breath. “I’m fine. I went out to buy food, and two Empousai were attacking a Cyclops, but the Cyclops was a kid, I couldn’t do anything to him,” I said in one breath.

No one said anything, soaking in what I just said. 

“So….you’re not hurt right?” Annabeth asks me. “Nope! Anyone hungry?” I asked, unzipping my bag. They nodded eagerly. Handing them each one, and taking my second as the first one was dropped somewhere by me during all the fighting. 

We ate quietly. 

While eating, I was lost in thought. I wasn’t exactly mad at Percy, just at the fact that no one looks further than the looks or the parentage of the person. I would forgive him eventually, but I just wish there was a way that we could tell people how we feel, they treat us like scum. Not only Hades’ children but Slytherins as well. I may have affected the view of a few people, but that wouldn’t change the world. They might try to convince their friends and others, but they will most likely not change their views of us, they were fed these lies throughout their lives by people they trust. 

I was snapped out of my thoughts when someone came and sat on the seat across from me. I had finished my hot dog by this time. The rest of us quickly covered our faces with our caps or looked down, hiding them with our hands. 

About four stations later, the man got off the train and we all relaxed. He had started eyeing us weirdly two minutes ago. 

Sometime later everyone drifted off to sleep, but I stayed awake, having gotten enough rest before. Their clothes and caps were covering their faces in case someone would come sit nearby. 

Many people got on and off the train. I started out of the window watching the sunset behind the pretty scenery.

I might have dozed off a bit, but I woke before the sun rose again. 

After a while of watching the people that boarded and exited the train, realizing it was around 8 o’clock and the others would be waking soon, I decided to get off at the next stop and buy them something to eat. 

While I was out, I noticed a newspaper stand and saw that Percy’s, Annabeth’s, and Grover’s faces were plastered on the front page. Mine wasn’t there though. Ignoring that, I headed back to the train with my sandwiches. 

When I reached, Grover was the only one awake. I handed him his sandwich and started nibbling on my own. Once we were done, we shook Annabeth and Percy awake. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A/N: Another chapter done! Comments and feedback are appreciated! 
> 
> -TheBlueBookworm is out~~!


	27. Chapter 27

That afternoon, we reached Denver. I went through my backpack once and realized with a shock that my money was over. 

Percy had told us that an underwater spirit told him that his father was summoning him to Santa Monica. It would have sounded absurd to any mortal, but considering the things I’ve been through, this was nothing. 

“Let’s try to contact Chiron,” Annabeth said. “I want to tell him about your talk with the river spirit,” “We can’t use phones, right?” Percy asked. “I’m not talking about phones...”

That reminds me, didn’t I tell Harry to IM me? I should do that next when I can…

We walked through downtown for about half an hour. When we found an empty do-it-yourself car wash, Percy asked “What exactly are we doing?” But all of us didn’t bother answering as we were too busy setting down our bags and looking for change. 

“It’s seventy-five cents,” Grover said. “I only have two quarters left,” “I have one quarter,” I said plucking it out of my bag. Grover handed me the 50 cents and I fed the quarters, setting the knob to fine mist. 

I pointed the nozzle in the air and the afternoon light broke into a rainbow. Annabeth took a Drachma from Percy and threw it into the rainbow, saying “O goddess, accept our offering.”

“Half-Blood Hill,” 

A few seconds later, we were looking at the Strawberry Fields of Camp. I couldn’t see exactly what or who was there, so I just focused on holding up the hose. “Luke!” Percy exclaimed. 

Annabeth was a stuttering mess. I rolled my eyes, she always had a crush on Luke, but she would never admit it. “We thought - Chiron - I mean-” she was saying.

“He’s down at the cabins,” Luke was saying “Listen, is everything cool with you? Is Mil alright?” he asked. “I’m right here!” I say from behind. 

Just then a huge car pulled up in the next stall, blaring loud music. I usually love music, but this guy was wasting out time and money. 

I let out a frustrated sigh. Annabeth said “I’ll take care of it!” she went off, dragging Grover along with her. I was starting to get tired, so I sat down, crossing my legs, but angling the nozzle in a way that kept the rainbow going.

I was surprised that I had such bad ADHD because, during the conversation, I zoned out taking in our surroundings. 

I was snapped back into reality when the water shut off. “What happened Percy? What did Luke say?” Annabeth asked him as she and Grover came back. “Not much,” Percy had replied, glancing at me nervously like I would object him. “Don’t look at me! I wasn’t listening! But I am hungry and there seems to be a diner nearby, anyone want food?” I say. 

A few minutes later, we were sitting at a booth in a diner. The waitress came over to us and raised her eyebrow. “Well?” she asked. “We, um, want to order dinner,” Percy said. 

“You kids have money to pay for it?” she asked. When no one else replied, I said “Yeah,” The other shot me worried looks. I mean come on! We’re already fugitives! What's stealing a little food? Just as I was about to place my order, a motorcycle the size of a baby elephant pulled up to the curb. 

Everyone in the diner froze. The guy on the bike was huge. He walked into the diner and everyone rose, and when the biker waved his hand dismissively, they sat back down. Everything went back to normal. 

The waitress asked again, “You kids have money to pay for it?” Before I could reply, I was cut off by the biker. “It’s on me,” He slid into our booth. 

It took me a second to realize who this was - Ares. The God. 

“So you’re old Seaweed’s kid, huh?” He said to Percy. “And you’re Hades’ kid?” I nodded. “What’s it to you?” Percy retaliated. “Percy, this is-” Annabeth was saying, but was cut off by Ares. “S’okay. I don’t mind a little attitude. Long as you remember who’s the boss. You know who I am, little cousin?”

“You’re Clarisse’s dad, Ares, god of war,” Percy said. “That’s right, punk. What I’m here for - I heard you were in town. I got a little proposition for you.” Just then the waitress came back with trays full of food. Ares paid her with a few gold drachmas and she was about to protest, but he threatened her with his knife. 

“You can’t do that,” Percy said. “Are you kidding? I love this country. Best place since Sparta. Don’t you carry a weapon, punk? You should. Dangerous world out there. Which brings me to my proposition. I need you to do me a favor.” “What favor can I do for a god?” Percy asked, but shut his mouth when I nudged him in the ribs with my elbow. 

I know Ares’ presence was affecting him, but now was really not the time to act superior to A GOD! He already has Zeus and Hades on his back! “Something a god doesn’t have time to do himself. It’s nothing much. I left my shield at an abandoned water park here in town. I was going on a little date with my girlfriend. We were interrupted. I left my shield behind. I want you to fetch it for me.” 

I zoned out there, and was back when Percy was asking “What interrupted your date? Something scare you off?” That was it! Percy was being so stupid! I clapped my hand over his mouth. “I apologize for him, Lord Ares! We will get back your shield!” 

“This one has manners? Didn’t expect Hades’ kid to be nice,” he said. I wanted to lash out and slash him with my knives, but I controlled myself, he was a god after all. Instead, I gave him a smile, he thinks I’m nice right? Might as well keep up my rep. 

Then, his face turned serious again, “Don’t disappoint me,” Then, something happened, because when I opened my eyes next, Ares was gone.

“Not good. This is not good,” Grover said. 

“Forget Ares. Let’s just go,” Percy said. I scoffed. “Percy, a GOD asked you to do something for him! A GOD! I get it, we don’t have to like all of them, but you have to know what to do and when to do it. You already have the king of all Gods targeting you, that alone is crazy. Try not to anger any other gods. I’m just trying to keep you alive,” 

Percy looks terrified at first. I give him a small smile, and he looks down at his burger. 

“Why does he need us?” Percy asked. I suddenly feel bad for shouting at him. I’m so horrible. Ugh, can’t keep any friends. 

“Maybe it’s a problem that requires brains,” Annabeth said. “Ares has strength. That’s all he has. Even strength has to bow to wisdom sometimes,” 

After we were done stuffing ourselves, we made our way to an abandoned water park. A sign that used to read WATERLAND, now read WAT R A D.

The main gate was locked and topped with barbed wire. Inside, we could see huge, dried-up water slides everywhere. It looked haunted, but we were demigods, we’ve faced much worse. 

“If Ares brings his girlfriend here for a date, I’d hate to see what she looks like,” Percy says. I snigger into my fist, covering it up as a cough, and Percy sends me an amused look. I smile back.

“Percy. Be more respectful,” Annabeth warned. “Why? I thought you hated Ares,” Percy replies. “He’s still a god. And his girlfriend is very temperamental,” “You don’t want to insult her looks,” Grover said. “Who is she? Echidna?” Percy retorts. “No, Aphrodite,” Grover replied and I rolled my eyes at his dreamy expression. “Come on guys,” I said. “How do we get in?” Annabeth asked. 

“Maia,” Suddenly, Grover's shoes sprouted wings and he flew over the fence, doing an unintended summersault in midair. I held in some sniggers. “You guys coming?” He asks as if the whole thing was planned. 

I shadow traveled next to Grover. Annabeth and Percy had to climb over the old-fashioned way, but I helped them out by putting a layer of shadow-cushioning over the wire. 

Everything, including the wind, was quiet and still on this cool night. 

We found a souvenir shop. “Clothes,” Annabeth said. “Fresh clothes,” “Yeah, but you can’t just-” Percy was saying, but was cut off. “Watch me,” she replied, grabbing a whole rack of clothes and entering the trial rooms. 

“Well….this place is abandoned,” I said shrugging and picking out a few more clothes and entering in after Annabeth. I changed into a blue Waterland t-shirt and floral shorts with flip flops. 

I’m pretty sure everyone would be looking the same way. I went back out to find even Percy and Grover changed. We all scoured the shop to find something useful. I was looking through the coat racks trying to find….well, just looking, I guess. 

I saw a pile of clothes on the floor, when I picked them up, I found an egg. I don’t know what kind it is, but I picked it up anyway. Admiring it, I call to the others “I’m going to the bathroom, just a minute!” I head towards the stalls and walk around them. There is nothing back there, so I crouch, observing the egg. 

It looked somewhat like Norbert’s egg. Nah, it can’t be! 

Just then I heard a few hurried whispers and when I looked up, I saw two boys, who looked around 20 or so years old. “Hello?” I called out cautiously. The whispers stop. I see the two figures turn to me, and one of them approaches me. 

“Hello, that egg you’re holding, ah, that’s mine,” he says. He has a British accent and when I look at him closer, he has red hair. Just… just like the Weasley’s. “Really? Then how did it end up here?” I asked him.

“Because I was here a few days ago and left it,” he replies. I raise an eyebrow. “This place is abandoned and looks like it’s been like this for a while now, why were you here a few days ago?” I question. “Uh...well- What are you doing here?” He retorts and I’m taken by surprise. 

“I uh….I-” “Listen, if you could just give me the egg, I’ll be on my way,” he says. “How do I know I can trust you?” I ask. “Well, I guess I’ll have to obliviate you then,” he mutters to himself.

“Obliviate….like the memory charm?” I ask, confused. “Wait...you’re a witch?” he asks. “Who are you?” I ask him after nodding. “I’m Charlie, I work in Romania, we take care of dragons, and the egg you’re holding, my friend, is a Romanian Longhorn,” he says. 

So he’s a wizard...I hand him the egg. “Who are you?” he asks, trying to make conversation. I open my mouth to reply, but I’m cut off by the other guy shouting “Oi, Char! We need to get going!” “Oh, well, I’ve got to go, but it was nice meeting you,” Charlie says to me. 

“Yeah, same,” He turns and runs to his friend before apparating away. 

As I walk back to Percy, Annabeth, and Grover, I think about Charlie. Charlie. Charlie. That name sounds so familiar. Charlie, dragons. Hmmm…..

“Millie! There you are!” Annabeth said, jogging towards me, Percy and Grover not too far behind. “Yeah, sorry, I thought I saw something, and lost track of time, didn’t mean to worry you,” I say.

I didn’t know exactly what we were looking for, so I followed the others. When they stopped, I stopped and looked around the creepy place. I had never actually been to a real water park before, this was a new experience for me. “Millie? Wanna come instead?” “Huh? Yeah,” I agree and follow Percy. 

It seems I agreed to go get the shield with him. We entered an empty pool that looked like a bowl. Annabeth followed. grumbling. and I guessed Percy must have said something stupid. At the center, there was a boat in which Ares’ shield was residing. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A/N: I don't own any of the pictures. I can't wait to get to the start of the Chamber of Secrets! I want Millie to get back to Hogwarts and start pranking again, but I've got a whole storyline planned out for this quest that is important for the future...
> 
> -TheBlueBookworm is out~~!


	28. I’m terrified of water!

I looked around and saw that we were surrounded by mirrors. no matter where we looked, we could see ourselves from different angles. For some reason, my forearm started prickling, right where my scar was at. 

My hand shot up to my scar, I held it tightly as the pain started and increased. “Mil? Are you fine?” Annabeth asked, and I nodded. I put my hand back down, trying to ignore the pain. “Oh, no you don’t! Stay away from that love magic,” she said grabbing a pink scarf from Percy. Must be Aphrodite’s. 

“What?” Percy asked. Oh, my gods! He is so clueless! “Just get the shield Seaweed Brain!” 

“Wait,” Annabeth said suddenly after Percy picked up the shield. “Too late,” Percy said. 

There was noise all around us. Out of the pipes, spiders started to crawl out. Annabeth screamed and hid behind Percy and me. We tried getting out of the pool, but the slope wasn’t as easy going up as it was going down. 

I took out my swords and started slashing away as many spiders as possible while keeping Annabeth behind me. I knew how terrified of spiders she was. 

The Cupids’ heads popped open and video cameras were revealed. A loudspeaker said “Live to Olympus in one minute...Fifty-nine seconds...fifty-eight...”

Oh no. Everyone would be able to see us now! 

We all scrambled back into the boat as I started struggling to keep the spiders off of us. Percy was yelling something to Grover. “Could you help me!?” I screamed at him. “I’m trying!” he replied. 

“Five, four...” the speakers continued. 

Water burst out of the pipes and Percy pulled me into the seat and fastened his own seatbelt. I did the same as he helped Annabeth. 

We were in the spotlight. The cameras were live-streaming us to all the gods. Well, isn’t this embarrassing? 

My eyes were clamped shut, I wasn’t the fondest of water. It turned dark, so I opened my eyes to see pictures of Romeo and Juliet and a bunch of other things zooming past us. Percy started the ride!

Then the tunnel ended. 

Next, we should have gone through the Gates of Love, but they were closed, the whole water park was shut down after all. “Unfasten your seatbelt!” I heard Percy yell. “Are you crazy!?” Annabeth yelled back. 

My eyes were shut again. I was starting to get seasick from all the rocking of the boat. (A/N: Daughter of Hades, so should be self-explanatory, but she is scared of water and gets seasick as well) 

I couldn’t hear anything except for the water roaring. “MILLIE! UNFASTEN YOUR SEATBELT!” Percy shouted at me. “WHAT!? NO!” I shouted back. I managed to open my eyes to see we were about to crash. My eyes widened, but before I could do anything, Annabeth said “Now!” Percy and Annabeth jumped out. 

I managed to stop the boat before it hit the gates, but it was a sudden break so I did a frontflip and landed in the water in between the gate and the boat. I looked to see Percy and Annabeth had missed the pool, when they flew over the gates, Grover was trying to slow them down as they were shooting towards the ground. I held out my hands as I created a black fog? Shadow? Pillow? I really need to come up with a name for that. But I helped lower them to the ground slowly. When their feet touched the floor, the black...thing, dissolved. 

For a second everything was fine, but when I realized where I was I started panicking. My breaths were getting faster. I could barely see past the gates and not the boat was on the other side blocking my view from almost everything. I tried screaming for help, but I was paralyzed. “Percy!” I managed to say. Hopefully, that got his attention. 

The world started spinning and I couldn’t stay afloat anymore, I started sinking. That’s when my instincts kicked in and I started trying to find my way up, but I couldn’t find the right way. 

I opened my mouth to try and shout. But nothing but water entered my mouth and found its way down and started filling my lungs. What? I was panicking. 

Suddenly, I shot out of the water and smacked into the ground next to three pairs of legs. I immediately turned on to my stomach and coughed out the water in my lungs. 

I gasped and took in as much air as I could in one breath. When I gained my senses back, Percy was crouching next to me, patting my back. Breathing heavily, after the water was out, I looked up at the other three. Annabeth engulfed me in a hug. 

Shocked, but happy to be safe, I clung to her. “Why did you try to save us? We would’ve managed!” Annabeth said. I smiled a bit. “I can’t have you dying on me like Thals,” I tell her. “Yeah, well I can’t lose you either!” 

Once she let go of me, I turned to Percy who helped me up. “Thanks” I muttered to him. “No. It’s thanks to you we didn’t end up flat,” he replied. I let out a little laugh. “I would’ve liked to see a Pancaked Percy,” I retorted. “I wouldn’t” Grover perked up. 

“Do you guys have the shield?” I asked them. Percy nodded and held it up. “Let’s get out of here before another one of the rides comes alive with mechanical lions or something,” I say as I start walking towards the entrance of the water park. 

Percy caught up with me. I was still drenched and was trying to squeeze the water out of my clothes. Percy noticed and evaporated the water from my clothes. “It’s so cool how you can do that,” I inform him. He grins and replies “Yeah, what about your powers?! You can teleport! I mean that overrules my powers leaving them in the dust,” 

We walk in silence for a while. “You know I’m really sorry for back at the Arch,” He says to me, looking down. “Yeah...it’s just, I’m not very self-confident. Since childhood, I was never accepted or fit in anywhere, and when even you guys didn’t include me, I felt like I was useless...” I admit. 

We walk in silence before I have a sudden doubt and it slips out before I can stop myself. “Do you never get tired? Wait. I mean, after using- I’m making no sense am I? Ok.” Percy chuckled. “I meant, doesn’t using your powers drain you?” “Um...no, I mean, I’ve never really thought about it, but, I haven’t used them much until now, and I kinda was soaked in water so I couldn’t feel much I guess, but I am slowly becoming tired. Does that answer your question?” 

“Yeah, but I get exhausted after using too much of my powers. I have been getting stronger these past years, but I’m jealous, how are you not tired!” I say smiling at the stupid idea of comparing powers and me being jealous of him. He laughed and I nudged him slightly with my elbow. 

“That whole thing was broadcasted to Olympus right?” I asked him, talking about the incident. “Yeah,” I could tell he was getting angry now. “I must have looked like a fool,” I chuckled. “Yeah you kinda did,” “You can make fun of me, I looked like a total idiot!” “You looked really scared though. Are you afraid of water?” 

“Um yeah...I get seasick, plus I do have the right not to trust your father, no offense to him, but none of us are really supposed to be alive right now,” I told him. “So...what are you afraid of?” I asked him. “Um..Losing my mom, and you guys,” He replied. 

“Don’t worry, I won’t be leaving your side anytime soon. Even if I die, I’ll come back to haunt you guys,” I threatened. 

“I don’t mean to invade, but at the bus stop, I saw you tear a poster off the wall...You don’t have to tell me anything if you don’t want to,” I told him. “I don’t think I’m ready to tell that to anyone just yet,” he replied quickly. “Okay, okay, that’s fine, but if you ever need to talk...” I trailed off. “Yeah, I know, thanks,”

“You know, I just realized, we don’t know the least about each other. You wanna just shoot questions at each other? We have to answer the first thing that comes to mind within 5 seconds...no wait, that’s too long, in 3 seconds!” I suggested. “Alright! What’s your favorite color?” 

“Mine is...Blue! Like an aqua!” I replied. I know, it’s surprising, not green or black considering my parentage and house, but those are also huge stereotypes. It’s not that I hate those colors, just, I like aqua better. “Yours?” I shoot back. “Blue, I know it’s a bit stereotypical, but I just love blue! Ok, what’s your favorite animal?” “A-” I cut myself off as I was about to say Niffler, it’s a magical creature! “Uh...I’ve never actually thought about it, do mythical creatures count?” I asked him. 

“Sure?” he asked. 

“Was that a statement or a question?” 

“Oh haha, just answer the question!” 

“Then it would be a dragon!” 

“But that’s not real!” 

“Yeah, but you said mythical creatures were fine!”

“Ok, fine, what is your favorite animal. One that is real.”

“Nope, it’s my turn to ask,” 

“Ugh, fine! Ask away,”

We continued like that for a while. It was still quite a long way back to the diner. “Guys, I think I have enough energy to shadow travel us back there,” I told the others. 

“What? No! You are going to kill yourself one day doing such restless things! But like now, I’ll be there to stop you!” Annabeth said. “Um...no really Annie, I can do it. It’s still dark, and this way we won’t reach till dawn! The shadows can help me heal fast after!” I try to convince her. 

She glances at Percy and Grover, having a silent conversation with their eyes. Eventually, she sighs and nods. “Fine,” 

I tell them to hold hands. We stand in a line, Percy and Annabeth on each side of me, Grover on the other side of Percy. I concentrate on the dark, pull it towards me as I imagine the diner. I could feel my power draining out of me like water in a pool. Oh no. The water park must be affecting my brain. 

I feel the sudden need to faint. I collapse into Annabeth and open my eyes. We made it to the diners parking lot. I see Ares waiting for us there, leaning on his motorcycle. Annabeth takes me near a wall and sits me down. I motion for her to go talk to Ares. 

I lean my head back onto the wall and close my eyes, soaking in the shadows and darkness, regaining the energy I lost. 

I folded my legs up and hugged them to my chest. I rest my head on my knees and close my eyes. That was a mistake. I drifted off into an uncomfortable slumber. 

I was shaken awake, what felt like years, but was probably only minutes later by Annabeth. “Hey, we got to go. Our ride is about to leave,” she says. 

She helps me up and I notice that Percy has a new bag. It seems he ditched the bag I got from the fire and took a new bag, probably from Ares. A wave of dizziness hit me and I stopped, taking the support of the wall for a second. 

I followed the others to a truck that said ‘KINDNESS INTERNATIONAL: HUMANE ZOO TRANSPORT. WARNING: LIVE WILD ANIMALS’


End file.
